390 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



is put into retaining walls. At Elmira and Corning good stone 

 has been obtained, which is expensive to dress, and does not com- 

 pete for fine work with sandstones from districts outside of the 

 State. The quarries at "Waver ly, Owego, Elmira and Corning, 

 and nearly all of the quarries in Allegany, Cattaraugus and 

 Chautauqua counties are in the Chemung sandstone. 



, Cat skill Gkoup. 



As implied in the name, this formation is developed in 

 the Catskill mountain plateau in the eastern part of the 

 State. Sandstones and silicious conglomerates predominate 

 over the shales. The thicker beds of sandstones are generally 

 marked by oblique lamination and cross-bedding, which make it 

 difficult and expensive to work into dimension blocks. Except 

 for flagging and for local use but little is quarried. There are no 

 large towns in the district, and consequently the demand is light. 

 There are, however, some good quarries, which are worked for 

 flagging, chiefly along the New York, Ontario and Western rail- 

 road and the Ulster and Delaware railroad lines in Ulster and 

 Delaware counties ; and in the Catskills, in Greene county, there 

 are quarries in Lexington, Jewett, Windham, Hunter and 

 Prattsville. 



Tbiassic Formation. 



This formation, which is known as New Ked Sandstone, or 

 locally, as the red sandstone, is limited to a triangular area in 

 Rockland county, between Stony Point on the Hudson and the 

 New Jersey line, and to a small outcrop on the north shore of 

 Staten Island. 



The sandstones are both shaly and silicious, and the varieties 

 grade into one another. Conglomerates of variegated shades of 

 color also occur, interbedded with the shales and sandstones. 

 Formerly these conglomerates were in favor for the construction 

 of furnace hearths. They are not now quarried. The prevail- 

 ing color of the sandstone is dark-red to brown, whence the name 

 " brownstone." In texture there is a wide variation, from fine 

 conglomerates, in which the rounded grains are somewhat loosely 

 aggregated, to the fine, shaly rock and the " liver rock" of the 

 quarrymen. Oxide of iron and some carbonate of lime are the 

 cementing materials in these sandstones. 



