ruijLDiNr; and ounamental stonef?. 



380 



Several outcrops of marble oecur in Middlebury, and whioh have been 

 worked for many years past; but in consequence of (Jio thinness of the 

 be<ls, their badly-pointed structure, and tlie interstratification of a raafj- 

 nesian state that produces numerous " rising seams," it is quite difiicult 

 to obtain perfectly sound blocks of large size.* 



The quarries in Dorsi^t an^ situated mostly upon the si<les of Mount 

 Eolus, or Dorset ^Mountain, as it is also called, a section of which (after 

 Hitchcock) is here given. 



The thickness of the slaty cap rock is estimated by Tlitchcock at 498 

 feet, and the various beds of limestojie below at 1,1)70 feet. Although 

 but a small portion of this is suita,ble for quarrying, still the supply is 

 readily seen to be inexhaustible. The prevailing colors of the stone, as 

 at Eutland, are white and bluish, variously mottled and veined. Ac- 

 cording to Professor Seclyt the first quarry opened in J)ors.ct was by 

 Isaac Underhill, in 1785; the stone being use<l chiefly for fire Jambs, 

 chimney-backs, etc. The first marble grave-stones ever furnished here 

 were the work of Jonas Stewart, in 171)0. ^ 



The bed of primordial rock known to geologists as the "red sand- 

 rock," which occur in the northwestern part of the State, bordering on 

 fiake Ohainplain, is, as a rule, a hard, dark-red sandstone, containing 

 some 8 or 1) jicr cent, of potash, with about the same amounts of iron 

 and lime. The entire formation, which is some 15,000 feet in thickness, 

 is, however, by no means uniform in composition, but inctlndes consid- 

 (Mabl(», beds of limestone, dolomite, slater, and shale. It is the dolomilic 

 layer which furnishes the peculiar redand-white mottled stoiu> po[)U- 

 larly known as ^V^inooski marble. According to a writer in the Amer- 

 ican Natural ist, I the beds of this marble appear first one or two miles 

 north of Burlington an<l extend in a somewhat interrupted seri(\s imrth 

 tlirough Saint Albans, and end between that ])lac(^ and Swanton, IMore 

 llian thirty years ago a^ cjuarry was o])ened in this rock about miles 

 from lUirlington, but owing to the hardness of the stone the enter- 

 ]>rise ])roved a failure and the quarries were abnudoned. Later quarries 

 wei'e opened at Saint Albans, and still more recently were re-opened at 

 Burlington, the stone being used largely for lh)oring-tiles, wainscot, 

 ings, and general interior decorative work. As a rule the stone is crys- 

 talline and very hard, much harder than ordinary marble. Its color is 

 " Geology of Vermout, Vol. ii, p. 7(!9. 



t Op. cit, p. :?f;. 



t George TI. PfM-kiiis, Amoricaii Naturalist, F(>l»., IS^l. 



