ANALYSIS OF BEREA SANDSTONES. 



BY PROF. JEHU BRAINERD. 



Read before the Cleveland Academy of Natural Science, January 8, 1858. 



Having had occasion to examine, by Chemical Analysis, 

 some specimens of sandstone from the quarries at Berea, 

 Ohio, in reference to their qualities for Building purposes, 

 I deem the result of sufficient interest to form the basis of a 

 communication for the consideration of the members of this 

 Academy. 



The geological series to which this quarry belongs has 

 quite an extensive outcrop along the northern boundary of 

 the Western Reserve. Its jDosition is some two or three 

 hundred feet below the great range of sandstone conglom- 

 erate that underlies the coal fields of Ohio. The general 

 dip of this rock is southeast, but in many places very nearly 

 horizontal. In other localities the dip obtains an altitude 

 of 30° or 40", owing, probably, to local upheavals. In such 

 cases the direction of the dip is not uniform. The drift rests 

 upon this series, and, wherever exposed to the action of the 

 transporting agency, the rock is grooved and polished, 

 the striae generally having a direction South from 10" to 

 30° East. 



The rock is formed in beds or layers, ranging from thin 

 lamina to a thickness of eight or nine feet, and generally 

 exhibit ripple marks upon the surface. The color varies 

 from a bluish gray to a light drab, and often slightly tinged 

 with the per-oxide of iron. 



A microscopic examination of the best specimens show 

 that the grains, generally, present well defined crystaline 

 iaces, probably formed from an aqueous solution of silica. 

 The massiveness of such beds, and the absence of fossils, 

 seem to indicate that the deposition took place in deep and 



