WILL COUNTY. 221 



lingford, and some fine stone is obtained. Distance from railroad communi- 

 cation alone prevents the development of quarries of equal value with those of 

 Joliet. 



The Jackson quarries are also in nearly equivalent beds. 



The beds of this portion of the Niagara group, where exposed near the sur- 

 face for some time, yield flagstones of considerable size ; but those of the lower 

 portion of the group are more extensively quarried for this purpose, and have, 

 apparently, a rather larger proportion of the shaly partings. This character 

 alone prevents some portions of these lower beds from equaling the higher 

 ones for building purposes. 



From the whole extent of the outcrops of this group, small quantities of stone 

 are quarrved for fences and wells, and occasionally for buildings ; but no other 

 quarries than those above mentioned have assumed any considerable importance 

 as sources of regular supply. The quarry in the southeast corner of section 11, 

 township 37 north, range 9 east, seems to have reached the solid beds below the 

 cherty layers, and is likely to prove valuable ; but, at the time of my visit, it 

 had not been fully tested. 



The upper division of the Cincinnati group has been quarried to a small ex- 

 tent for local uses, at the mouth of Rock run, between Joliet and Channahon ; 

 but the beds are so shaly as to be readily broken up by the weather, and can 

 never furnish a reliable building stone. The limestone of the lower member 

 of the Cincinnati group, occasionally quarried in the bed of the Kankakee, be- 

 tween one and two miles above Wilmington, gives small quantities of a perma- 

 nent but rather rough and irregular stone. It would probably be worth more 

 for limej if care were taken to exclude the shaly portions of the beds. 



Lime is burned at numerous points in this county, the principal production 

 being from the lower portion of the Niagara group. An impure article is also 

 furnished from the shaly limestones of the Cincinnati group, at the mouth of 

 Forked creek, in Wilmington. Small quantities of hydraulic cement have 

 been burned from a bluish bed near the base of the Niagara group in the south 

 part of Joliet. 



Brick. With such an abundance of building stone, comparatively few brick 

 are used in the county. The production is principally from the brown clay sub- 

 soil, which is found distributed throughout the timbered portion of the county, 

 and, to some extent, under the prairie soil. A few brick are also made from 

 the alluvial clay of Mt. Joliet. The fire clays which underlie the main coal 

 seam, in the southwest corner of the county, are made to yield a good article 

 of brick, at Gardner, in the adjoining part of Grundy ; but no use has been 

 made of them in Will county. 



Pottery. At Mt. Joliet, large quantities of drain-tile are manufactured from 

 the alluvial clay of the neighborhood. The green, shaly clay, which forms the 



