32 Report on Building Stone of New York. 



Little Falls. — Gneiss, or, as it is here known, the " blue rock," 

 has been used a great deal in Little Falls, on account of its numerous 

 outcrops and the necessary openings in it for the construction of the 

 Erie canal, the New York Central railroad, and the excavations for 

 buildings. No regular quarries have been opened ; nor is it exported 

 for construction elsewhere. The rock has a greenish-gray shade, and 

 is moderately fine-crystalline in texture. It is hard and a durable 

 building stone, as can be seen by the ledges outcropping in the valley 

 and in the old structures and walls built of it. The stone was used 

 in several mill buildings, in the R. C. church, in the new school, in 

 the Presbyterian church and other buildings in the town. 



Wilton, Saratoga County. — Granite is quarried in the town 

 of Wilton, two miles north of Saratoga, on the eastern slope of a 

 gneiss rock ridge, and about 80 feet above the plain. The open- 

 ing is in the face of a south sloping ledge which rises 100 feet 

 or so above the quarry. The beds are thick and dip about 40° 

 south-south-west. The rock is divided by a joint system, which runs 

 north-north-east, and dips steeply east-south-east. The bed which is 

 now worked is about 15 feet thick. The opening has a breadth 

 of about 100 feet and is about 60 feet deep. The plant of the 

 quarry consists of one derrick, and a shed for dressing. The 

 stone is light gray in color, and is plainly stratified ; and in places 

 shows lines of black mica which are in sharp contrast with the white 

 quartz and feldspar ; and it is rather fine and crystalline. Some red 

 garnet is present in small nodular masses. The stone can be split 

 with the rift or grain of the mass. It is hard, but dresses true and 

 readily. The weathered ledges all about the quarry show that it is 

 very slightly affected by long exposure. One objection to this stone 

 for building purposes is the garnet which gives the mass a brown, 

 and in some cases a spotted appearance, which is not pleasing. Very 

 little of it has been used as building stone. The greater part of the 

 product has gone into paving blocks, some of which have been laid 

 in Albany, some in Cohoes and other places. The quarry is one mile 

 from the D. & H. C. Co.'s railroad station, and the stone is shipped 

 over that line. The quarry is worked by A. N. Brady, of Albany. 



North-west of the Wilton quarry granite has been worked in the 

 town of Greenfield, but only to a limited extent. The quarries are 

 now idle. 



Granite has been quarried at the side of the Adirondack railway 

 near Wolf Creek or Quarry Switch, as the place is now known. The 



