244 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



town of Amsterdam, and at a height of i8o to 250 feet 

 above the Mohawk valley. The stone is in beds from six 

 inches to three feet thick which lie almost horizontally. The 

 rough stone is sold for making lime, the best is cut into 

 platforms, sills, lintels, and house-trimming materials. The 

 principal markets are Amsterdam, Albany, Cohoes and 

 Troy. Shanahan's quarry furnished a large amount of 

 stone for the foundation of the Capitol at Albany. The 

 other quarries are Hewitt's and Vanderveer's. 



Tribes Hill, Montgomery County. — There are two large 

 quarries near the station of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. at 

 Tribes Hill : that of Henry Hurst & Son, a few rods west 

 of the depot, and one east of it, belonging to James Shan- 

 ahan. The former is worked steadily and mainly for con- 

 struction in the neighboring towns ; the latter has been idle 

 for several years. 



The upper strata in both quarries are of blue limestone 

 suitable for common rubble work or for lime-making. The 

 gray stone of the thicker and lower beds is fine-crystalline 

 to sub-crystalline in texture, and having a specific gravity 

 of 2.718. The computed weight per cubic foot is 169 

 pounds. It contains, according to analysis, matters insolu- 

 ble in dilute hydrochloric acid 2.48 per cent, and of lime 

 53.57 per cent or equivalent 95.68 per cent of calcium car- 

 bonate. The absorption percentage was found to be 0.14. 

 Freezing and thawing produced no change. At a red heat 

 it was reduced to lime. 



The markets for Tribes Hill limestone are Albany, Troy, 

 Cohoes, Stillwater, Mechanicsville, Hoosick Falls, Johns- 

 town and Gloversville. 



The Edison House, Schenectady, is an example in con- 

 struction. 



Fine-tooled surfaces are of a light-gray shade of color ; 

 polished, it looks almost like a black marble.'^' 



* There is a fine cubical block from Mr. Shanahan's quarry in the State Museum 

 collection whose polished face is almost jet black. 



