BUILDING STOKE. B5 



Ft. 

 Massive brown sandstone, exposed , 25 



Limestone and shale, partly exposed 50 



Green and blue argillaceous shales, mostly beneath a covered slope 70 



Massive gray sandstone, with parting? of green and blue shales, exposed 80 



The prison buildings and yard are located on the lower limestone 

 of the foregoing section, which is probably more than a hundred 

 feet in thickness, and extends below the low-water level of the river, 

 and to the height of sixty to eighty feet above low- water mark. The 

 quarry in the prison yard has a perpendicular face of about forty 

 feet of solid limestone in beds from one to four feet in thickness, 

 and presents considerable variety of color and texture. Its prevail- 

 ing color is a light gray, passing sometimes into buff, and again 

 into a dark bluish-gray. The rock is sufficiently compact to receive 

 a high polish, and some of the beds would make a handsome mar- 

 ble. The upper part of the bed is semi-oolitic' in structure, while 

 other portions are almost entirely made up of minute bryozoans, and 

 the other low forms of organic life. 



These quarries afford material adapted to all the ordinary uses to 

 which limestones are usually applied, and from the favorable loca- 

 tion of this institution on the Lower Mississippi, with uninterrupted 

 navigation at nearly all seasons to all southern points, and with 

 transportation by railroad to the interior towns where building stone 

 of good quality is always in demand, a ready market will be found 

 for all the varieties of building stone which the prison quarries can 

 supply. 



Dimension stone of almost any desirable size may be obtained 

 here, and the foundation stone for the monument to be erected at 

 Chester to the memory of Gov. Bond had just been completed, and 

 was awaiting transportation to the cemetery at the time of my last 

 visit to this locality. This was a single stone, 7^ by 7| feet square, 

 and 30 inches thick, and estimated to weigh about 12 tons. 



The prison buildings are mainly constructed of a fine brown 

 sandstone, obtained from the upper bed of the foregoing section. 

 The quarries from which this rock was obtained are about half a 

 mile north of the penitentiary, but on the lands belonging to the 

 institution. The quarries present a perpendicular face of about 25 

 feet of evenly-bedded brown sandstone, the beds varying in thick- 

 ness from four inches to four feet or more. It breaks evenly across 

 the lines of bedding, and blocks of any desirable size can be readily 

 obtained. When freshly quarried the rock is soft, and can be 

 easily dressed, but it hardens on exposure, and forms a handsome 



