148 Transactions. —Miscellaneous. 
mentioned is not found to be a serious one, I have no doubt our main 
supply of freestones for architectural purposes will ultimately be drawn 
from the Otepopo sandstone. 
The lowest grade of freestones, and the last in my list, is the well-known 
Caversham stone. The deposits of this rock throughout the province are 
practically illimitable. It can be found anywhere along the coast, and for 
_ & considerable distance inland, from Kaitangata to Moeraki. The extent of 
the deposits in accessible situations increases the regret often felt about the 
inferiority of the stone, and one is apt to wish that it had exchanged places 
with the carboniferous sandstones in the neighbourhood of the Dome Pass 
or Eyre Mountains. This stone has been found below sea level at Green 
Island and Otago Harbour, and 1000 feet above it, at the Leith Saddle: 
and the Look-out Point tunnel, 950 yards long, is through a solid rock of 
the same material. I might almost say a solid stone, for there are only five 
or six cracks in the entire length. The Caversham stone is generally of a 
bluish-grey or yellow colour ; but these are seldom blended in any way ; 
its texture is also remarkably uniform ; in peculiar situations, such as 
isolated cliffs and near basaltic dykes, the stone occasionally changes, but 
the solid stratum of rock is perfectly homogeneous. 
Although it was extensively used as a building material some years ago, 
Caversham stone is altogether unsuited for any purpose where strength or 
durability is required. It does not at first harden on exposure, like the 
limestones, but begins to decay whenever erected, if exposed to winds, 
rains, or frost. Some of the Caversham stone, used in old buildings that 
have been painted, is still sound, but there are a few exposed examples, par- 
ticularly on southern walls, that are not decayed to a considerable extent. 
This completes a description of the principal Otago building stones, on 
which I have information. You may have noticed that, although they 
comprise specimens from all quarters of the province, there are a few 
isolated districts capable of producing good materials, to which no reference 
has been made, viz., the Upper Waitaki, Tapanui, Switzers, and the Waiau. 
I know little or nothing of their resources, consequently I am reluctantly 
compelled to omit them. 
The first part of my next paper will be devoted to the consideration of 
bricks and concrete, after which I shall revert shortly to stones as the 
building material for which they are substitut 
ed, and institute comparisons 
between the relative merits and cost of the three materials. 
Bricks. 
The materials for making bricks are so widely and abundantly diffused 
throughout Otago that the difficulty is to find a locality where they do not 
iat : 
