6o8 



CLAY, ROAD MATERIALS, ETC. 



Available Stone. 



The sandstones of Lewis and Gilmer, as described in 

 Chapters V to IX, inclusive, vary from flaggy and shaly beds 

 that do not have the necessary cohesiveness to be used for 

 building stone, to great massive ledges, 50 to 60 feet thick, 

 that will split into building blocks of any desired size. These 

 massive ledges are all of the same general type, micaceous, 

 gray on fresh fracture and often weathering to brown, some 

 of them being very soft and worthless while others are hard 

 and durable. They do not have the beauty of texture or 

 smoothness of grain to make them desirable for architectural 

 purposes where ornamental or carved stone effects are needed 

 but in all structures where durability and fireproof construc- 

 tion is the main feature, they can not be surpassed by any 

 stone shipped in from other counties or States. They are 

 fitted for bridge piers and abutments, retaining walls, and 

 for buildings of plain construction, such as the Weston State 

 Hospital which is built entirely of stone quarried in Lewis and 

 Harrison Counties. In nearly every locality, one of these 

 ledges is of massive character and can be quarried. No at- 

 tempt has been made to describe all these outcroppings in de- 

 tail but Map II shows the geological series outcropping in 

 each locality, and a general description of its sandstones will 

 be found in the text. 



