mTILlMXC! AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. o93 



built about |]io. mi(bllo of tlio oijilitcoiitb coutury. Tho rock is coni- 

 [)oso(l simply of shells of ;i bivalve inollusk luoro or less broken and 

 ceineuted together by the same material in a more finely divided state. 

 Fragments of shells an inch or more in diameter occur. The rock is 

 loosely compacted and very porous, but in a mild climate like that of 

 Florida is nevertheless very durable. The quarries were opened up- 

 wards of two hundred years ago, but the stone is not now extensively 

 used, owing in part to the dampness of houses constructed of it, and in 

 ])art to the cheapness of wood. The rock, wliichis ])oi)ulaily known as 

 Coquina (the Spanish word for shell), is of Upper Eocene age. In the 

 (piarries the stone lies within a few fo(^t of the surface, and can be cut 

 out with an ax, in sizes and shapes to suit. 



The oolitic limestone occurring at Key West has been quarried and 

 used in the construction of numerous private and public l)uildings in 

 that vicinity. 



Kansm. — The limestones and dolomites of this State are, as a rule, 

 of a light color, soft and porous and incapable of receiving a polish 

 such as will fit them for any form of ornamental work. Many of them 

 are cellular and loosely compacted, being made up in large i>art of a 

 small fossil rhizopod about the size of a grain of wheat and known 

 under the name o\' fuftid'nia. Such stones are obviously unfitted for 

 exposed work in localities subject to great extremes of temperature, 

 although they may be very durable in mild or dry climates. Those at 

 present quarried are almost without exception of Carboniferous or 

 Permian age, and occur oidy in thin beds, varying from a few inclies 

 to 8 or 10 feet in thickness. 



Xear Irving there occurs a light-color(Ml, soft, tliin-beddcnl stone, 

 which, though not quarried during the census year, has in times ])ast 

 been used for building purposes in Atchison and Kansas City. It is 

 soft aiul easily quarried ami for ordinary construction requires but 

 little dressing. At Frankfort a similar stone o(!Curs which h;is been 

 used to some extent for l)uildings, though iUMnci])ally for foundations. 

 Som(! of the stone from these localities are of very poor (luality, bciing 

 soft and quite cellular througli the breaking away of the small fossils 

 above referred to. Atchison, in the same (iounty, has quarries of a 

 darker, more compact stone, whicii are worke<l for h^cal use. 



In the vicinity of Topeka there are quarried light-colored, comjiact, 

 finely fossiliferous dolomites and limestones which work very readily, 

 and which have been used in the construction of about thirty-five 

 common l)uildings in that city, besides a church, school, and opera 

 houses in I^mporia. They have also been used in Parsons, in Labette 

 County, and neighboring towns in Missouri, 



Near Lane, in Franklin County, gray and bulV limestones are (piarried 

 and used quite extensively in Ottawa and Garnctt, in the same Stat<', 

 though some have been shipped to Chicago, The bulf variety is some- 

 times oolitic, resembling to some extent the Bedford (Indiana) st(uie. 



