CLAYS OF NEW YOKK 693 



horse power to run his machinery. The bricks are loaded on cars 

 and shipped to various points along the Central r&ilroad. 



Peehskill, Westchester ■ co. Bonner & Cole's brick yard lies 

 between the river and the railroad about three quarters of a mile 

 south of Peekskill. The clay lies below tide level. It is said 

 that borings have shown a thickness of 50 feet. There is on the 

 average a stripping of 5 feet of gravel and cobblestones. 



South of this yard are two others, viz, Oldfield Bros, -and 

 the Bonner brick co. Their clay is similar to Bonner & Cole's, 

 but rises to a greater hight above tide level. 



Haverstraw, Bockland co., is one of the great brick manufac- 

 turing centers of ISTew York state, there being 42 brick yards, with 

 a yearly capacity of 238,000,000 bricks. The yards are situated 

 in a line along the river stretching from the lower end of Haver- 

 straw village northward around Grassy Point, to Stonypoint. A 

 few of them are situated along Minisceongo creek. Most of the 

 yards along the river are digging their clay below tide level. At 

 the south end of the village a dam was built at an expense of 

 $30,000, reclaiming thereby 12 acres of clay land from the river. 

 And more recently clay has been dredged from the river bottom. 

 The last-mentioned bed of clay is underlain by till and modified 

 drift, from which tempering sand is obtained. The clay within 

 this inclosure has been excavated to a depth of 20' feet below mean 

 tide. In the pits of the Excelsior brick co. they have reached a 

 depth of 35 feet below river level; in Donnelly & Son's pit, 45 

 feet, and west of Washburn's yard, 40 feet. A pipe well was sunk 

 from mean tide level 100 feet through blue clay, in the Excelsior 

 co.'s clay, and at this depth struck bed rock or a large boulder. 



The clay in these pits is rather sandy on top, but is said to im- 

 prove with the depth. It is mostly blue. Streaks of quicksand 

 are always liable to be encountered. In those pits situated along 

 the river and to the rear of the yards, there is no expense of strip- 

 ping unless the excavation is widened, but there are two important 



