74 Report on Building Stone of New Yorn. 



19. Pine Hill in Shandaken. 



20. Rochester and Wawarsing quarries in valley of Rondout 



creek and its tributaries, north-west of Wawarsing and Ellen- 

 ville. 



Of course it must be understood that there is much variation in 

 these many quarries, in the thickness and nature of the overlying 

 earth and cap-rock, or what is generally termed the " stripping, 11 in 

 the number and thickness of the workable beds, in their " lay 11 or 

 dip, in the direction and spacing of the joints or "headers" and 

 "side seams," in the kind of stone and in the natural advantages of 

 location for economic working. The many openings and their history 

 seem to show that the whole territory is underlain with beds of blue- 

 stone, but in large areas the stone is of inferior quality, or the 

 thickness of quarry beds is not great enough to warrant their work- 

 ing with profit. And the abandoned quarries are the localities gen- 

 erally, where the stripping has become too great for removal, or 

 where the stone has thinned out or has been, as it were, replaced by 

 worthless rock. In some cases the localities are left on account of 

 too long haulage to transportation lines. The tendency of later 

 years has been toward railway or canal to save cartage, and the back 

 districts have decreased in their production. Thus there has been 

 an increase in the number of localities opened and in the output of 

 the territory adjacent to the Ulster and Delaware railroad. In prac- 

 tice it is found that where the distance exceeds ten miles, quarrying 

 is scarcely profitable, unless in exceptional cases. And so with the 

 stripping, where it is over 20 feet, the quarry beds must be thick 

 and the stone of good quality to pay for its removal. A rule is that 

 the total thickness of quarry beds must not be less thau one-third of 

 the stripping. 



The stone of the Saugerties quarries is carted to Maiden and to 

 Saugerties. The quarry districts in Kingston ship their stone from 

 Wilbur, on the Rondout creek, or load on cars at Stony Hollow. 



Some of the Hurley quarries also send their stone by team to Wil- 

 bur. For the other districts in the towns of Olive, Woodstock and 

 Shandaken, the Ulster and Delaware railroad is the natural outlet 

 line. The quarries near Ellenville and Wawarsing are nearer to the 

 Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the N. Y. O. <fc Western railroad, 

 and the greater part of their stone is shipped to New York and 

 other points. 



In working, the general custom formerly was, to lease the laud at 



