HOLMES] 



THE PINY BRANCH QUARRIES 



47 



pits. The mass of material about these pockets and beyond, up to the 

 fortytifth foot, was comparatively barrcu of artificial refuse. Tlie mid- 

 dle parts of the mass of tillediu material, as indicated in the section, 

 is quite homogeneous, as if never worked over by man, and must have 

 descended into the quarry pit en masse as a miniature landslide from 

 above. It consists of loose, crunddiug, sandy clay of reddish color — a 

 characteristic of the higher-level beds — containing some gravel and 

 occasional bowlders. Eather high up in the sides of the trench could 

 be seen indications of old overplaced deliris containing shop refuse 

 and coarse materials, all of grayish color. Near the surface the over- 

 placed gravel was 



and 



again reddish 

 barren of art. 



In approaching 

 the fiftieth foot, 

 pockets of shop ref- 

 use began to ap- 

 pear, and at from i 

 to feet deep and 

 beyond the fifty- 

 sixth foot charac- 

 teristic quarry- 

 shoi) phenomena 

 were encountered. 

 Beds of clay and 

 refuse of varying 

 colors were seen 

 dippingintothehill 

 as the quarry face 

 was approached. 

 Nature distributes 

 her materials with 

 the slope, but art 

 reverses this ; as 

 the earth is thrown 

 out of a quarry pit 



j4- fnvinti livprs con- ■^"^- ^ — Section of bowlder beds exposed in quarry face 13 feet in height. 



forming roughly to the slope into the jiit. The section exposed in this 

 trench is given in ])late xv. 



At the tiftyseventh foot a descent of 2 feet was made into a deeper 

 portion of the ancient quarry as shown in the section. At the sixtieth 

 foot the bottom of the old quarry was 13 feet beneath the present sur- 

 face, and at about the sixtythird foot the quarry face was encountered. 

 When this was uncovered to the full width of our trench, the section 

 shown in figure 8 was disclosed. Beginning at the top there were 

 about 3 feet of overplaced slope material, dark above from the presence 

 of vegetal mold and composed of sandy clay below; beneath this were 



