34 Report on Building Stone of New York. 



course, and dips steeply north-east. These joints or seams are usually 

 from four to six feet apart, hence the blocks as made by these joints 

 are large. This subdivision of the rock facilitates the quarrying of 

 large masses, which are afterward broken into sizes by means of plug 

 and feather wedges ; and very little powder is used, as there is no 

 blasting except to throw oft* the surface stone. The joints also help 

 in the working into the hillside east and south and upward. 



As the quarries are on the side of the hill, and are not yet deep, 

 there is need of very little pumping. There is one derrick for hoist- 

 ing stone at the lower quarry and one at the upper quarry. At the 

 upper quarry a track runs from the quarry to the dump w r here the 

 waste rock is thrown out. All of this stone on the dump would 

 answer for ordinary building purposes, but owing to the lack of a 

 local market it is practically useless. 



The glaciated ledges, with their rounded, grooved and polished 

 surfaces, near the quarries on this side of the hill, both above and 

 below them, show very little alteration by exposure to the weather ; 

 and the durability of the stone is proven by the very slight tendency 

 to alteration in these surface outcrops. The quantity of stone is 

 apparently unlimited. The distance to the railroad or lake at Port 

 Kent, which is the nearest point to rail or boat, is the only serious 

 drawback, as all of the stone has to be hauled by teams to that point 

 or Douglass station. The company has its dressing and monumental 

 works in Keeseville, and the product goes into market, dressed. On 

 account of its hardness and the cost of dressing, the Au Sable granite 

 cannot compete with limestones or sandstones for common wall work, 

 but for decorative or monumental work it is especially adapted, 

 because of the high polish which it receives and its beauty. The 

 dark, polished surface, with its chatoyant play of colors, is both beau- 

 tiful and pleasing, in contrast with the substantial-looking, gray, 

 dressed surfaces. And lettered work is thus sharply denned in the 

 dark ground. 



This granite has been used for interior decoration in a church in 

 Philadelphia. It is being put into the trimmings of the Y. M. C. A. 

 building at Burlington, Vermont. For monuments it has had a wide 

 market. 



Another quarry is opened in the granite on this (Prospect) hill, 

 about a quarter of a mile south-west of the Au Sable Granite Com- 

 pany's openings. It is idle. 



One mile west of Keeseville, Clinton county, the granite has been 

 opened by a Glens Falls party. 



