oy4 . REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



The texture is firm and compact, and it acquires a good surface and 

 polish. The i;ray variety is coarser, and often somewliat celhdar, owing- 

 to the imperfect filling of the spaces between the fossil i^articles of 

 which it is composed. A section of the quarry shows the gray stone 

 to occur in a bed about 4 feet in thickness, and the bufl" oolitic about G 

 feet in thickness, the layers of w hich vary from 18 to 24 inches each. 



Near Marion Center, in Marion County, there is quarried a light-drab 

 cellular raagnesian limestone of Permian age, that has been used in the 

 construction of the asylum for the blind and insane at Wyandotte and 

 T()])eka, in this State. Similar stones are quarried at Cottonwood, in 

 Chase County. The stratum of quarry rock here is some G feet in 

 thickness and blocks of any desired size and of thickness not ex- 

 ceeding 2i feet can be obtained. The principal markets for these stones 

 are Kansas City, Mo. ; Lincoln and Omaha, Nebr. ; Pueblo and Denver, 

 Colo., and Atchison, Topeka, and Leavenworth, Kans. 



In the vicinity of Fort Scott are some half a dozen irregularly worked 

 quarries which furnish stone for building foundations and pavements 

 in the near vicinity. The stone is dark colored, fine grained, and semi- 

 ciystalline, and is said to stand the wear of from ten to fifteen years' 

 exposure very well. It turns to a brownish color on long exposure and is 

 strong enough for ordinary structures. The stone quarried at Winlield 

 is a light-colored, fine-grained cellular rock and so soft as to be quarried 

 by means of plug and feathers only, the holes being first bored b}' 

 means of a common auger without point. It is a handsome stone and 

 has a good reputation for durability. It is used mostly in this State, 

 though some is shii)ped to Kansas City, Mo.* 



Many of the towns in Butler County produce fine-grained, light-col 

 ored limestones suitable for rough building in the immediate vicinity, 

 but not at all suitable for ornamental work. 



Illhiois. — No siliceous crystalline rocks of any kind are to l)e foun<l 

 within the State limits, almost the entire product being limestone or 

 dolomites, with a few quarries of sandstone, which are noticed on p. 448. 



The most notable of the limestones of this State is the finegrained, 

 very light-colored Niagara stone, quarried in the vicinity of Lemont and 

 Joliet, in Will County. According to Professor Conover,t the Lemont 

 quarries lie on both sides of the Illinois and Lake Michigan Canal, and 

 the beds of stone are quarried to their lower limits through a variable 

 thickness of from 13 to 40 feet. The stone here is uniformly a fine- 

 grained, homogeneous, light-drab limestone, occurring in beds from 

 to 21, and sometimes oO inclies in thickness. The beds are divided ver- 

 tically by seams occurring at intervals of from 12 to 50 feet, and con- 

 tinuing witli smooth faces for long distances, and also by a second set 

 running nearly at right angles with the first, but only continuous be- 

 tween massive joints and at irregular intervals. This structure renders 



*Prof<is.ior BrodlKiad in Keimrf, of Tenth Census, pp. '275-277. 

 t Report of Tenth CeusuS; p. 221. 



