460 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



Pittsburgh and Allejrheiiy, and other towns in Allegheny County, there 

 are many quarries which produce gray stone of medium texture of ap- 

 parently good quality. They are said, however, to weather unevenly, 

 owing to the presence of calcareous matter, and to be very sensitive to 

 frost when first quarried. In several places in Vfestmoreland County 

 the stoues of this age are of a gray, reddish, or brownish color, fine 

 grained and of good quality. They are used to some extent for build- 

 ing and also for flagging and paving. 



The sub-Carboniferous formation, so valuable in Ohio for the building 

 stone they supply, are in this State of little value, or at least up to date 

 have been but little quarried for purposes of constraction. At Venango, 

 in Franklin County, a fine-grained, evenly-bedded buff stone, some- 

 what resembling the buff varieties of the Berea grit, is quarried for 

 sidewalks and buildings in the near vicinity. Other quarries are located 

 at Titusville, and also at Uniontown, Altoona, and Scranton. 



Aside from the Triassic stones, the most important sandstones at 

 l)resent quarried in the State are from the Devonian formations. In 

 several towns in Pike, Carbon, Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, and 

 other counties, stones belonging to this formation, of a fine, compact 

 texture and dark blue-gray color, are quite extensively quarried. So 

 far as can be judged from the material examined, this is one of the most 

 valuable stones in the State for building as well as for flagging pur- 

 poses. The Wyoming County stone is known to the trade as "Wy- 

 oming Valley stone," and is in considerable demand. It agrees very 

 closely in general appearance with much of the New York bluestone 

 already described. 



Tennessee. — Finegrained light pink and coarse buff" sandstones occur 

 at Sewanee, in this State, and coarse gray at Parksville. The museum 

 is in possession of no information regarding the extent to which these 

 are used or their weathering properties. 



Texas. — So far as is yet known this State produces but little of value 

 in the way of sandstones. In Burnet County there are coarse dark- 

 brown and red Lower Silurian (?) sandstones that may do for purposes of 

 rough construction in the near Aiciuity. A fine, light buft" Carbonifer- 

 ous stone, closely resembling the light-colored Ohio sandstone, occurs 

 also at Mormon Mills, on Hamilton Creek, in this same county. A very 

 light gray distinctly laminated stone occurs at Kiverside, in Walker 

 County, but to judge from the sample in the Museum collection it is of 

 verj^ poor quality. A fine-grained liglit bufl" stone, studded with tine 

 black points, is found at li-angcr, in Eastland County, and several varie- 

 ties of apparent good quality, ranging in color from light buff to deep 

 ferruginous red, in Parker County. So far as the curator can learn none 

 of these are quarried to any great extent. 



Utah. — No sandstones of any kind are now regularly quarried in this 

 Territory, though there is no lack of material. At Eed Butte, near Salt 

 Lake City, there occur inexhaustible supplies of Triassic sandstone of 



