ANALYTICAL ABSTRACTS. 647 



Ashland and on the island of Bayfield produce an excellent building stone, 

 yet not without defects. From one of the quarries the largest block of sand- 

 stone ever quarried was taken. 



The Portage-Entry red sandstone is very popular on account of its fine 

 grain, easy splitting and sawing qualities, and easy manipulation under the 

 tool. In some localities it loses its bright color and becomes streaked. The 

 Marquette Raindrop stone is rapidly growing in favor. It is of Potsdam age 

 and older than the preceding stone. The sandstone from Keweenaw Bay 

 took first prize at Philadelphia and Chicago for building sandstone. Analyses 

 and crushing strength of the different varieties rre given. T. C. H. 



The Great Bluestone Industry. By Henry Balch Ingram (Popular 

 Science Monthly, July, 1894). 

 The writer states that New York City, which uses such large quantities of 

 North or Hudson river bluestone flagging, has the finest sidewalk pavements in 

 the world. The bluestone is a fine-grained, compact sandstone, extremely 

 hard and made up of microscopic crystals of the sharpest sand. The stone 

 occurs in a belt stretching from the Helderberg Mountains in Albany county 

 diagonally across the southeastern portion of the state into Pike and Wayne 

 counties, Pennsylvania. The belt varies in width, being in the shape of a 

 scalene or obtuse triangle. The best quality of stone found along this belt is 

 in Ulster county, where it has a medium to dark blue color. In the north 

 part of the belt it has a gray color, and in the south part a deep red. So far as 

 known the first quarry of this stone was opened near Kingston, in 1826. It is 

 now one of the important industries of the state, the product of the quarries 

 amounting annually to nearly $3,000,000. One quarry at West Hurley, known 

 as the Lawson quarry, is said to have produced more than $4,000,000 worth 

 of bluestone. The stone occurs in blocks piled up like cardboard, which are 

 wedged off, lifted out, and cut up into the sizes required. Some are too small 

 for flagging and are used for coping, pillar caps, etc. Sometimes monoliths of 

 great size are obtained; one being 20 X 24 feet and 9 inches thick. The blue- 

 stone in Ulster county, New York, belongs to the Hamilton period, while that 

 quarried in the other counties belongs to the Catskill group of Devonian age 



T. C. H. 



