CLAYS OF NEW YORK 691 



bricks at a time and by moving the handles tbe plates press against 

 the brick, squaring the comers. It is said a boy can square a pitful 

 of brick (35,000) in a day. The molding machines have an endless 

 chain with buckets attached to them for feeding the sand. This 

 leaves only the clay to be shoveled into the machine, and the feed- 

 ing of the two uniformly and continuously gives a more evenly 

 tempered mixture. It will be seen in this case that no soak pit or 

 ring pit is used ■ — • the molding machine does all the mixing. The 

 molding sand is dried by spreading it out on the kiln floor, it being 

 thought that it dries quicker this way than if it were banked up* 

 against the kiln, as is commonly done. 



The W. A. Underhill brick yards are situated midway between 

 the base and end of Croton point. There are twoi yards, both 

 covered. The brick made at this yard are sold mostly for fronts, 

 selling for $14 a thousand. The clay bank lies between the two 

 yards; it has a hight of -40 feet above mean tide and extends 15 

 feet below it. At the last-mentioned depth the blue clay stops and 

 is followed by 2 feet of yellow clay, several inches of quicksand, 

 through which spring water enters, and finally hardpan. There is 

 a stripping of fine sand, which varies from 10 to 20 feet in thick- 

 ness. Some portions of this sand are found to make a better brick 

 when mixed with the clay than others. The clay is mined in 

 benches, and narrow tracks are laid along the working face. Side 

 dump cars are used to haul the clay, being run in trains of three, 

 drawn by four mules. The tracks are laid around the ring pits, so 

 that the clay may be easily discharged into them. 



Ctnigers, Montrose and Verplanck, Westchester co. These three 

 localities lie so connected and their clay banks are so similar that 

 they are best described together. The clay is extremely variable 

 in depth, which is due to the great irregularity of the face of the 

 underlying rocks; it is both blue and yellow. 'No special method 

 is used in mining the clay, it being dug at any convenient spot till 

 the underlying rock is reached and then the bank is attacked at 

 another point. At Montrose and Crugers the clay is overlain in 



