124 Report on Building Stone of New York. 



quarter of a mile, M. Degnan has opened a quarry. The gray lime- 

 stone and associated strata are similar to those at the Shonnard 

 qi allies. To the north-east, and across the gulf from the last men- 

 tioned locality, is the abandoned quarry of Wm. Liddy. 



The Splitrock quarries were worked actively at time of the building 

 of the Erie canal, and many locks on it were of the Splitrock gray 

 limestone.* B 



Onondaga Reservation Quaeeies, Onondaga County. — South 

 of Syracuse and on the Oonondaga Indian Reservation, gray limestone 

 is quarried by five parties, all within a range of three-eighths of a mile 

 from north to south. They are in the north-east corner of the Reser- 

 vation, and are worked at a nominal rental paid to the State. At the 

 north-eastern end of this group of openings is Hughes Bros, quarry. 

 Going south, the next adjoining, is that of John Kelly, Jr., and then 

 the quarries of Patrick McElroy, Wm. Crabtree and D. L. Storrier. 

 The quarries of Hughes Bros., Kelly and McElroy form one con- 

 tinuous opening, which has a length of 250 yards from north to south. 

 The quarry face consists of a wall of rock running in a zig-zag course 

 following the joints or seams. At the north end the beds are hori- 

 zontal or may dip slightly east-south-east. In McElroy's quarry the 

 dip is to the south-east and at an angle of 20°. The seams or joints 

 run nearly due east and west ; and another set, less regular, north and 

 south. A vertical section of the strata in Hughes Brothers' quarry has : 

 blue limestone (cherty) ten feet ; blue limestone, one foot ; gray lime- 

 stone, six feet, and gray limestone at the bottom. The covering of 

 earth on the rock is rarely more than a foot thick. The joints are 

 plain in the blue stone, but less marked in the gray. The bottom bed, 

 four feet thick, has tight seams or is " bed-bound," and is not worked. 

 A vertical section at McElroy's quarry shows : rock, with earth mixed, 

 6 feet ; blue limestone, 20 feet ; gray limestone, 7 feet ; and gray 

 limestone at the bottom, 5 feet. The blue limestone is in beds or 

 courses one to two feet thick, and is usually separated by thin layers 

 of shaly rock. It contains much chert. This blue stone cannot be 

 dressed, and only a small part of it is used, for common walls ; and for 

 this purpose some of it is carted to Syracuse, but owing to the ex- 

 pense of carting it, the greater part is left on the dump in the quarry. 

 The removal of this stripping, of blue limestone, makes the working 



* There was then a population of 6000 people at Splitrock. The old stone tavern, a 

 massively built structure, and 50 years old, is all that is left of the town, and a 

 proof of th»' durability of the stone. 



