D38CRIPTION OF, MARBLE AKD LIMESTONE QUAERIES 431 



Sing Sing, Westchester County. — The crystalline limestone 

 east of the State'prison and on the State property was formerly 

 worked for marble ; and the prison buildings and the State Hall 

 at Albany are built of stone which came from these quarries. 



"White limestone in the Dover Plains — Patterson valley has 

 been opened at several points between Patterson on the south and 

 Dover Plains on the north, and a white marble has been obtained 

 and worked up largely for monumental bases and gravestones. 

 The stone of these quarries is bluish white and fine crystalline in 

 texture and is readily dressed. They have been idle for several 

 years past. 



Towner's Four Corners, Putnam County. — The old quarry 

 at this locality was opened two years ago for stone to be used in 

 the construction of the Sodom dam. The stone is gray and 

 white, rather coarse-crystalline and contains many crystals of 

 white pyroxene scattered through the mass. The friable and 

 decomposed condition of the ledges near the quarry leads to the 

 belief that the stone is not very durable. 



Gouverneur, St. Lawrence County. — At Gouverneur there 

 are three companies working marble quarries. The works and 

 quarries are located about one mile southwest of the village and 

 near the R , W. & O. railroad line. There are two leading varie- 

 ties of stone obtained in these quarries ; a light gray at the top 

 and a dark-blue at the bottom. The latter resembles, when 

 dressed, some of the gray granites. Both varieties are coarse- 

 crystalline in structure. A specimen from the St. Lawrence 

 Marble Company's quarry was found to have a specific gravity of 

 2.756, equivalent to a weight of 171 pounds per cubic foot ; 51.57 

 per cent, of lime, 3.29 per cent, of magnesia and 1.29 percent, 

 insoluble matter. The absorbed water amounted to 1.16 per cent. 

 The loss, when acted upon by sulphurous acid gas, was 0.15 per 

 cent.; freezing and thawing produced no apparent change. At a 

 high temperature, (1200°-1400°) the specimen was fully calcined. 



" The Gouverneur marble was employed at least fifty years 

 ago for gravestones, and in the Riverside cemetery, at Gouver- 

 neur, these old gravestones, bearing dates from 1818 onward, can 

 now be seen. As compared with the white marble headstones 

 from Vermont it is more durable ; and there is not so luxuriant 

 a growth of moss and lichen as on the latter stone, but in the 



