BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 



387 



TLe Ktouo occurs in beds iisniilly but ii few leet in thickness, which 

 vary considerably in color, so tliat several grades, Ironi pure white 

 through greenisli, bluish, and almost black, may be taken from the 

 same quarry.* As a rule the best marbles in the State occur where the 

 beds or strata, stand at high angles, as at ^Vest liutland. The quarries 

 themselves at this village lie along the western base of a low range of 

 hills, which, to the ordinary observer, give no sign of the vast wealtli 

 of nuiterial coucealed beneath their gray and uninteresting exterior. In 

 quarrying, the best beds are selected, and upon their upturned edges 

 excavation is commenced, first by blasting, to remove the weathered 

 and worthless material, and afterward by channeling, drilling, and wedg- 

 ing; no powder being used lest the line massive blocks become shat- 

 tered and unfit for use. The quarry thus descends in the form of a 

 rectangular pit, with almost peri)endicular, often overhanging, walls, to 

 a depth of sometimes more than liOO feet, when the beds are found to 

 curve to the eastward and [)ass under the hill, becoming thus more 

 nearly horizontal; in following these the ({uariy assumes the appear- 

 ance of a vast cavern from whose smoke-blackened, gaping months 

 one would little suppose could be drawn the Luge blocks of suow-whito 

 material lying in gigantic piles in the near vicinity (see Plate i). Some 

 of the <puirries have been partially roofed over to protect them from 

 snow and rain, and seem like mines rather than quarries. The scant 

 daylight at the bottom is scarce siifticient to guide the quarryman in 

 his work. As one peers cautiously over the edge into the black and 

 seemingly bottoudess abyss, naught but darkness and ascending smoke 

 and steam are visible, while his astonished ears are fdled with such an 

 unearthly clamor of quarrying machines, the pufhng of engines, and the 

 shouts of laborers, as is comparable with nothing within the range of 

 our limited experience. 



The stone taken from the (pusrries is worked up in the cinnpanies' 

 shops in the immediate vicinity or shipped in the rough as occasion de- 

 mamls. The sup])ly is nscd for monumental, decorative, or statuary 

 work and general building. 



Other quarries in which the stone so closely resembles that of Rut- 

 land as to need no si)ecial descrii)tion, are situated at I'kist Dorset and 

 Dorset, Wallingford, Tittsford, Sutherland Falls, IJrandon, and JMid- 

 dlebury. xVt Sutherland Falls the stone is very massive, and large 



"Professor Hitchcock (Ot'oloj;y of Vminoiil, Vol. ii, ]>. 7(14) j;iv<'s ilio Ibllowiiig fig- 

 ures relative to the niarblc-bcd.s at one ol" the ^\'(^Mt iLiillaud ([luirries, beginuiiig at 

 tlio eastern side or top layer: 



i 



1. Upper bhio layer, 4 feet tliici<. 



2. Upper white layer, 3 Aiet G iiich(!s 



tliick. 



3. Gray limestone layer, 5 feet thick. 



4. White statuary layer, '.i feet thick. 



5. Striped layer, 1 foot 8 inciies thick. 

 0, New wliite layer, 4 feet thick. 



7. ^\'e(Iged white! lay(!r, from 8 iuches to 



'i feet () inches thick. 



8. Mnddy layer, 4 feet tliick. 



i). Striped green layer, 4 feet thick. 



10. Cam[)hor-gnni layer, :! feet thick. 



11. Wiiite layer, U feet thick. 

 I'i. Blue layer, o feet (! inches. 



