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cination, in which property it can be surpassed by no other limestone 
and but few other building stones, as very few are absolutely fire- 
proof.” The list of the more important buildings made of the odlitic 
limestone at the end of the report shows that it is already used in 
almost every state of the Union, in which use the cities of Chicago, 
Indianapolis, and New York lead. 
Statistics show that over six million cubic feet of Bedford stone 
was quarried in 1895, worth more than a million and a half of dollars ; 
1784 men were employed that year in the quarries, to say nothing of 
those engaged in stone-cutting, transportation, and building. ‘The 
work includes valuable statistics, tests, and analyses, and many 
instructive photographs of quarries, machinery, exposures, and build- 
ings, and closes with a bibliography of oGdlites in general and of the 
Bedford stone in particular. 
In the way of minor criticisms abandoned quarries are indicated on 
the maps, but not those in operation; while the lithographing of the 
maps is neatly done, the distinctions between formations might have 
been clearer in some cases without increasing the cost of the maps. 
The most serious criticism of the report is one for which the 
authors are not responsible, but it is one that unfortunately applies to 
many of our state reports, and is referred to here rather on general 
principles than on account of it being especially applicable to the 
present case; we refer to the short time allowed for its preparation. 
No matter what the worker’s aims, intentions, or abilities may be, 
behind him is the state geologist demanding much work in a short 
time and at little expense; the state geologist imagines the legislature 
is making the same demands on himself, while behind the legislature 
are the people asking for practical results. In our national surveys we 
have pretty much the same state of affairs—a constant demand for 
something to show for the money used. As a matter of fact, the prac- 
tical results of hasty work cannot be the best results. Haste in work 
of this kind, like haste in other things, is waste. It is our decided 
opinion that no member of a legislature or of Congress will object to 
allowing a state or a national geologist time to do good work if only 
the truth is placed fairly before him. Last year we had a valuable paper 
by Professor Hopkins on the carboniferous sandstones of Western Indi- 
ana; this year we have the present report on the Bedford stone, and 
some other year we shall have reports on other building materials of 
Indiana. Thus the matter that ought to have formed a single mono- 
