VERMILION COUNTY. 261 



As already stated, the " Grape creek" scam, " No. 6," has, in some parts of 

 the county, a cap of a few inches of cannel. Loose fragments of this have 

 caused some profitless explorations for a seam of that material. 



Lime. All the lime now used in this county is brought from a distance, 

 principally from Indiana. Along the railroads, there is no bed of limestone 

 in the county ; but at Big Spring, less than two miles from Fairmount 

 station, there is an abundant supply of limestone, the larger part of which is 

 suited for making lime. Small quantities have been burned here, in former 

 years. At this point, it is true, there is no wood for fuel, but a shaft not over 

 three hundred feet deep would furnish an abundant supply of coal for this pur- 

 pose, while at the same time supplying a stretch of country which will soon fur- 

 nish a large market for fuel. This is an especially favorable point for a shaft, 

 having rock all the way from the surface, and thus avoiding the heavy bed of 

 quicksand which would probably make trouble farther to the southward and 

 westward. A little enterprise would make Fairmount the center of a large 

 trade in both coal and lime. Several kilns have been burned along the upper 

 course of the Salt Fork, from the drifted fragments of this bed. 



The large drifted masses of Silurian (?) limestone which are quite numerous 

 in the neighborhood of Mann's chapel and Rossville, have furnished, and will 

 still furnish, small quantities of lime for local use. Small supplies could also 

 be obtained from the outcrops of No. 21 of the county section, at and near 

 Rock Ford on ^Salt Fork, and at Swank's mill on the Little Vermilion. The 

 deposits of tufa from the springs near Danville, are not sufficient in quantity 

 to be of any value. 



Bmldinrj Material. Coal-measure sandstones are proverbially unreliable as 

 building material; still, at three points in this county, considerable quantities 

 of apparently solid sandstone can be obtained. Danville is at present supplied, 

 for foundations and to a small extent for superstructures, from Leonard's quar- 

 ry, about a mile below the city, on the river bank. The best stone is of a 

 rather coarse grain, somewhat vesicular, and stained in spots with oxyd of iron. 

 It appears to be a permanent stone. The beds do not continue solid through 

 neighboring portions of the outcrop, and the supply of stone is therefore preca- 

 rious. The following is a section of the quarry, as it appeared in May, 1868 : 



FEET. IN. 



Olive shale, with purple streaks 8 



Coal 1 



Purplish shale 5 4 



Gray, sandy shales 2 



Gray sandstone 16 to 18 



Gray and bluish shales . 15 



On the opposite side of the river, not far from the same level, in the lower 

 part of the ravine of the branch which flows through Donlon & Chandler's 



