DESCRIPTION OF SANDSTONE QUARRIES 413 



The equipment consists of sledge hammers, wedges, plugs and 

 feathers, crowbars, shovels, wheelbarrows, and a hand derrick in 

 most of the large quarries. Pumps are rarely necessary. The 

 bed is first stripped of the overburden. The "stripping" of 

 "top," as the overburden is called, is usually earth and worthless 

 stone. In the most favorable case it is simply a layer of earth. 

 The worthless rock may be solid, in which case its removal is an 

 expensive item in quarrying, or it may be very much broken up 

 or shaly (called " pencil stuff "), when it is easily removed. The 

 top rock is removed with the aid of blasting powder and 

 dynamite, and large blasts are sometimes fired when it is heavy. 

 Thirty kegs of powder have been fired in one of these blasts. 

 The stripping is done mostly during the winter, and actual 

 quarrying about nine months in the year. 



The beds of stone are divided naturally into blocks by seams 

 and joints at right angles to each other. In the direction of the 

 strike of the ledge are the " side seams," which are very marked, 

 and, where large areas are stripped, may sometimes be seen 

 running straight and truly paralleL for several hundred feet 

 without interruption. At right angles to the side seams, and 

 less regular than these, are joints which form two opposite sides 

 of a block. The area of blocks varies greatly. That of large 

 ones may be 1,000 square feet or more. The bed baing stripped, 

 the layers or "lifts" of good stone are successively raised by 

 means of wedges driven into the natural bedding planes. Large 

 lifts are broken to desired sizes by plugs and feathers. The 

 plugs are driven home at the same time as the wedges and aid in 

 dislodging the stone from its bed. The thickne.-s of lifts varies 

 from one inch to six feet. 



In the High woods district the quarries are all small, and worked 

 by two or three men. Two men get out about $1,000 to $1,2U0 

 in stone per year. These small quarries are worked until the 

 good stone gives out, or more frequently until the top becomes 

 too heavy to be economically handled on so small a scale. The 

 beds of stone in this district are very uncertain. Layers of shaly 

 rock are interstratified with the good bluestone, and pockets of 

 the same material are irregularly distributed through the beds. 

 The district is said by quarrymen to be nearly exhausted. The 

 stone found here is of a good blue color, hard and heavy. All 

 thicknesses are found up to three or four feet. It is sold to dealers 



