BUILDING STONES. 67 



thickness, which are called "Chimney rock," from one of the 

 principal uses made of it. This is a soft, somewhat chalky 

 white rock, almost pure carbonate of lime, which is quarried by 

 cross-cut saw, and shaped with saw, hatchet and plane. The 

 principal use to which the blocks are put is the construction of 

 chimneys and fire-places, for which, notwithstanding its com- 

 position, it is most admirably adapted, fire-nip c^s which have 

 been in use for fifty years being still in a perfect state of pres- 

 ervation. In the region of its occurrence all across the state 

 and also in the adjoining states, nearly all the chimneys and pil- 

 lars to the houses are constructed of this rock. 



Sandstones. The sandstones of the Coal Measures, the Low- 

 er Carboniferous (Hartselle), and the Cambrian (Weisner), 

 have all been used in building, and are well adapted to the pur- 

 pose. In the Coal Measures quarries have been worked at Jas- 

 per and Cullman, and at Tuscaloosa. The locks on the Warrior 

 River at the last named place are constructed of rock obtained 

 from the bed and banks of the river. The Hartselle sandstone 

 is quarried near Cherokee, Colbert county, and the stone has 

 been used in the construction of the locks at the Colbert Shoals 

 on the Tennessee River. The Weisner sandstone has furnished 

 the material for many of the handsome buildings around Annis- 

 ton. 



Granites and Other Igneous Rocks. While these rocks have 

 not been much quarried in Alabama, they occur in great quanti- 

 ties and in position favorable for quarrying at many points in 

 Lee, Tallapoosa, Chambers, Randolph, Elmore, Chilton, Coosa, 

 Cleburne, and Clay counties. The granites outcrop in "flat 

 rocks," which are low, dome-like masses of naked rock, some- 

 times 200 acres or more in extent. The largest of these flat 

 rock areas are near Almond postofnce, in Randolph ; near 

 Blake's Ferry, and near Rock Mills, and Wedowee, in the same 

 county ; also near Milltown, in Chambers ; southwest of Rox- 

 ana, and along Sougahatchee Creek, in Lee. Smaller outcrops 

 are to be found in all the other counties named. ' With the mas- 

 sive granites are associated the gneisses ; both are most excel- 

 lent building stones, and they are also suitable for monuments. 

 The factories, dams, and bridge piers at Tallassee and vicinity 

 have been constructed of the gneissoid granite, which makes the 

 bed and banks of the Tallapoosa River there. Some use has 

 been made of the granites about Wedowee in Randolph, at 



