Geographical Distribution. 19 



Catskill sandstone is quarried. The region has no large towns in it, 

 and hence no large local markets which would call for any consider- 

 ble amounts of building stone. There are, however, some good 

 quarries, which are worked for flagging, chiefly, along the N. Y., O. 

 & W. R. R. and the U. & D. R. R. lines in Ulster and Delaware 

 counties ; and in the Catskills in Greene county there are quarries 

 in Lexington, Jewett, Windham, Hunter and Prattsville. 



New Red Sandstone. 



The formation, which is known as the New Red Sandstone, or 

 simply as the Red Sandstone, is limited to a small triangular area in 

 Rockland county, between Stony Point and the New Jersey line. 

 The sandstones of this formation are both shaly and arenaceous ; and 

 the varieties grade into one another from the fine, shaly beds to fine 

 conglomerates. The prevailing colors are dark red to brown, — 

 whence the term brownstone. The cementing material is largely 

 ferruginous. The formation in its extension south-west in New Jersey, 

 furnishes the brownstone of the Belleville and Newark quarries so 

 extensively employed as a building stone in New York and the adja- 

 cent cities. The famous u Connecticut brownstone " and the Long- 

 meadow sandstone of Massachusetts come from the same formation 

 in the Connecticut valley. The larger and more important quarries 

 in this sandstone in Rockland county are in the west side of the 

 Hudson river, between Piermont and Nyack and near Haverstraw, 

 in the eastern slope of the Torne mountain. The oldest quarries 

 were opened first about a century ago ; and they were worked exten- 

 sively for many years. The principal market was New York city, 

 and the stone was sold for flagging, house trimmings, common walls 

 and rubble stone. As the quarries were convenient to navigation 

 and near a great market the business was large, until other stone 

 came in to compete successfully with it. And the quarries have been 

 abandoned and their sites taken for villas and town lots, for which 

 their value exceeds that of quarry ground. At present there are 

 only two quarries at work, between Nyack and Piermont. They 

 furnish flagstone and dressed stone for building. The quarries near 

 Haverstraw are not worked steadily. There are small openings near 

 New City, near Congers station and at Suffern, and probably at a 

 few other places, but all of them do a local business. 



In New York city and in the towns on the Monmouth county 

 shore of New Jersey this stone is sometimes called "Nyack stone" 

 or " Haverstraw stone.' 7 



