QUARTZYTES AND SANDSTONES. 57 



The shaly nature of much of the Hudson Kiver group of rocks in 

 the Mohawk valley, west of Schenectady, and the accessibility of 

 good limestone for building purposes, has prevented the opening of 

 quarries in it. Further west, and near Rome, there are small qarries 

 which are referred to this horizon, but they are unimportant. The 

 sandstone quarries in the towns of Camden, Oneida county, and of 

 Orwell in Oswego county, belong in it. The stone is generally gray 

 in color, fine-grained and hard and in moderately thick beds. None of 

 these quarries do much more than a small local business ; and they 

 are not in operation all the working season of the year. 



Medina Sandstone. 



Oswego. — Quarries have been opened in this city from the Fort 

 Ontario grounds eastward to the N. Y., O. & Western R. R. Co.'s 

 shops on the lake shore. They are small, and are worked by a few 

 men, at irregular times, for stone to be used in the construction of 

 foundation and retaining walls. The covering of earth is shallow — 

 on average three feet thick — then a shaly rock in thin beds, and 

 under it the quarry beds from ii\e to eight feet thick. The stone is 

 light gray in color and rather coarse-grained, but it is strong and 

 hard and suitable for inside walls, foundations, etc. A large quan- 

 tity has been put into buildings in the city. In the United States 

 grounds there is a large quarry. It has been idle for many years. 

 The formation belongs to the Medina epoch. 



Oswego Falls, Oswego County. — The Medina sandstone forma- 

 tion, as exposed along the Oswego river, is worked for building stone 

 at several points near the village of Oswego Falls. One of the quar- 

 ries is on the lands of a mill company and near the falls and on the 

 left bank of the stream. It has been idle for years. 



About a quarter of a mile north-west, on the left bank of the 

 stream, Hughes Brothers, of Syracuse, have a quarry — James Faulk- 

 ner and Michael Nealis are the lessees. It was opened 16 years ago. 

 The succession of strata is as follows : First, sandy loam, 3 feet 2 

 inches ; red, sandy earth and shaly rock, 11 feet ; red sandstone beds, 

 19 feet ; clay and rotten rock, 3 inches ; red sandstone, 14 feet. 

 A well sunk for the removal of water showed 10 feet of sandstone 

 below the quarry bottom. The old quarry pit, north-west of the 

 present face, or working, is now filled with water to a depth of 16 

 feet, and no beds below the water level are worked. The beds dip 

 very slightly to the west. So far as observed, one vertical joint only 



