HIGH-GRADE SILICA MATERIALS 9 



for grinding- pebbles and liners in tube mills. This will be discussed 

 in part 2. 



Operating facilities and transportation. The situation appears 

 to be very favorable for both quarrying and transportation ; the best 

 rock is exposed as an outcrop for over a quarter of a mile, and hence 

 but little stripping would be necessary. It is massive, well jointed, 

 and should break out easily into readily handled blocks. 



Peekskill creek lies only a few hundred feet away, the Hudson 

 river is less than a mile distant and the main line of the New York 

 Central and Hudson River Railroad runs close by, with yard and 

 freight facilities at Peekskill; transportation, therefore, offers no 

 problem whatever. Provided this material has any economic value, 

 it seems certain that it can be quarried and placed ready for ship- 

 ment at a minimum cost. 



POUGHQUAG QUARTZITE IN DUTCHESS COUNTY 



General description. The quartzite in this section^ is most 

 extensively developed about 10 miles east of the city of Beacon, 

 4 miles east of Fishkill, and in the immediate vicinity of the villages 

 of Wiccopee (formerly Johnsville) and Shenandoah. 



Two northeasterly-extending spurs of the Fishkill mountains 

 form the " hooks " of a roughly crescentic area, convex southwest- 

 erly. The quartzite fringes the inner slopes of the mountains, lying 

 on the eastern and western margins respectively of the two spurs 

 or " hooks," and on the northern (or inner) slope of that part which 

 forms the bow of the crescent. 



An outcrop of conglomeratic quartzite is exposed for a short 

 distance on the eastern flank of Honness mountain (the western 

 hook), about one-third of a mile south of Wiccopee; but most of 

 the quartzite in this vicinity is covered by drift. The best rock 

 occurs 2 miles south of Wiccopee on the farms of Ward Ladue and 

 Garrett Smith ; here it forms large prominent ledges extending 

 southerly for about one-fourth of a mile. 



This rock is a massive, well- jointed, grayish pink, vitreous quart- 

 zite, so highly indurated that surfaces polished by glaciation have 

 an appearance as though varnished ; it is extremely tough and hard. 



Lithologic character. In thin section it is seen to be a beautiful, 

 typical, most intricately interlocked, highly indurated, very pure 



^ Ar. excellent: description of the occurrence of the quartzite 2nd its rela- 

 tion to the gneisses of the Hishlands is contained in New York State 

 Museum Bulletin T48, entitled " Geolog}^ of the Poughkeepsie Quadrangle," 

 bv C. E. Gordon. 



