DESCRIPTION OF SANDSTONE QUARRIES 403 



strictions placed upon the quarry industry by the business rela- 

 tions to which it is subject. 



The quarry beds range from an inch to three feet and, in some 

 instances, up to six feet in thickness. The top beds are generally 

 thin. In most cases these thick strata can be split along planes 

 parallel to the bedding and the cap-layer is raised by means of 

 wedges. The size of blocks obtained is determined by the natu- 

 ral joints which divide the stone vertically. Stones sixty feet by 

 twenty feet have thus been lifted from a bed. The facilities for 

 handling and lifting really limit the size. The thicker stone are 

 cut into curbing, crosswalk and sidewalk stones and large plat- 

 forms, yielding what is known as flagstone. The thinner beds 

 furnish flagging for towns and villages. A part of the thinner 

 stone is cut into dimension work for water-tables, sills, lintels, 

 posts and window caps or house trimmings in general. 



" The stone obtained in these several districts varies in color, 

 hardness and texture and consequently in value, from quarry to 

 quarry, and even in the same quarry. In nearly all of the locali- 

 ties the beds vary a little from top downward ; rarely is there 

 much variation horizontally, or in the same bed. Hence, any given 

 bed may be said to have a certain character; that is, produces a 

 given grade of stone. The color is predominantly dark-gray or 

 bluish-gray, and hence (more by contrast with the red sandstones) 

 a " bluestone " Reddish-brown and some greenish gray stones 

 occur in the quarries higher in the mountain sides, as in the val- 

 ley of the Esopus creek above Shokan and in the Palenville quar- 

 ries. There is a decided preference for the typical " bluestone " 

 over the reddish or brownish-colored grades. In texture the 

 range is from the fine shaly or argillaceous to the highly silicious 

 and even conglomeratic rock. The best bluestone is rather fine- 

 grained and not very plainly laminated, and its mass is nearly all 

 silica or quartz, which is cemented together by a silicious paste 

 and contains very little argillaceous matter. Hence, the stone is 

 hard and durable and has great strength or capacity of resistance 

 to crushing or compression. Coarse-grained sandstones and even 

 fine conglomerates occur and are quarried in some localities. 

 These sandstones are not often found loosely cemented together 

 and friable ; and they are rarely open and porous." 



