74 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



20, their pay being $1.50 per working day. The plaster is 

 easily handled, breaking up with hammer and sledges along 

 planes of cleavage into masses resembling paving blocks. 

 A few small faults are observable in the workings and slips 

 are frequent. The general color of the quarried gypsum or 

 "rock" is gray, with plates of selenite coating the blocks and 

 more or less intermingled with the impure mineral. Large 

 crystals are occasionally found. The weather has a dis- 

 integrating effect on the gypsum tending to break it up into 

 dirt and small pieces which are thrown away as only the 

 blocks are carted away for grinding. The burr stones for 

 fine grinding are in five sets, three sets being 3^ ft. in di- 

 ameter and the remaining two sets 4! ft. in diameter and 

 all about 10" thick. The 3^' set have the understone run- 

 ning, while in the 4^' set the upper stone runs. The latter 

 is a new arrangement and is claimed by some to give better 

 results than the under run. It may be stated that the store 

 houses before mentioned serve also as drying houses, the 

 considerable amount of moisture present in the stone when 

 taken out preventing the best results in grinding. The 

 burr stones are notched or ground to allow disposal of the 

 crushed stone. 40 ft. of thickness is the maximum 

 reached in this quarry and that is in an old working. 8 

 ft. of top rock and 8 ft. of bottom rock with about 3 ft. of 

 shale is being worked at present. This varies however with 

 the rise and fall of the surface. Several old quarries are 

 found in the vicinity that are known as the Fitch and 

 Patterson quarries, neither are working, however, although 

 at the Fitch quarry a little gypsum was ground last winter. 



The next point west where quarrying is done is in the 

 town of Phelps, by A. D. Miller. He has a mill which 

 runs with water. His price is $2.75 per ton. The quarry 

 is on Canandaigua outlet and is well exposed, making the 

 attack very easy. 



The next point west is Victor where Theodore Conover 

 has a quarry some distance from the village. He has a mill 



