Report on the Geological Survey'of Connecticit, 169 
considerable extent by soil. It is the most beautiful granite in the 
State ; nor is it surpassed in whiteness and transparency of material 
by any granite in the country. The distance from water-commu- 
nication alone prevents i it from being a source of great value to ps 
proprietors.” 
The number of quarries of beautiful granite is so great that we 
cannot quote them, but must refer to the original report. : 
White marble is extensively quarried for architecture at New Pres- 
ton ; the average yield of the quarries here is seven to eight thou- 
sand dollars for the rough stone, and nearly as much more a — 
paring it in the neighboring shops. 
Sandstone is more extensively used than all el wsaevinld desi: 
ved from rocks. This rock is often soft when taken from the ground 
but hardens in the air, and its nearly horizontal stratification make 
it very easy to remove it from the quarry. 
«It is unnecessary to enter into details respecting the sandstone 
quarries of the Connecticut valley. There is scarcely a neighbor- 
hood not affording this valuable material in sufficient quantity for its 
own demand; while the great quarry at Chatham which employs 
two hundred men, furnishes blocks to all the maritime cities in the 
United States. ts very great facilities for supplying, added to its 
contiguity to the river, give it an advantage in shipping this stone, 
which it is doubtful whether any other quarry in the country will 
ever be found to possess. As a very peculiar variety on account of 
its color, the quarry at Wapping (East Windsor,) is entitled to men- 
tion., The sandstone here is of a bright and uniform brick-red. © 
“The most interesting deposit of sandstone for ornamental sieht 
tecture yet developed in the State, is situated in North Haven, at the 
east end of Mount Carmel, on the middle road between —— 
and Hartford. | — 
“‘Upon the common building materials of the State it: ‘may een 
marked, that we have but few rocks unfit for cheap and ordinary 
structures. If we except mica-slate, argillite, talcose and chlorite- 
slate, the more fissile shales and marly slate of the secondary, all the 
others are more or less employed. - Trap is most used in the valley 
of the Connecticut, and is not surpassed for strength and inaltera- 
bility by any other stone. It is frequently quarried without the aid 
of gunpowder, the seams of the rock presenting natural divisions. 
«Common building stone is quarried at several places in the State, 
exportation. It is generally spoken of as foundation-stone, or 
Vou. XXXIII.—No. 1. 22 . 
