MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 235 



Luthsr, D. D. Geology of the Livonia Salt Shaft. N. Y. State Geol. 13th 



Ann. Rep't, 1894 

 — . Brine Springs and Salt Wells of New York and Geology of the 



Salt District. N. Y. State Geol. i6th Ann. Rep't, 1899 

 Merrill, F. J. H. Salt and Gypsum Industries of New York. N. Y. State 



Mus. Bui. II, 1893 

 Vanuxem, L. Geology of New York: Report on Third District. 1842 



SAND AND GRAVEL 



Sand and gravel deposits are widely distributed; almost every 

 town or hamlet within the State has its local beds of these materials 

 from, which supplies are obtainable for the ordinary demands of 

 building and engineering construction. The production thus repre- 

 sented is enormous in the aggregate, but is divided among so many 

 widely scattered and more or less fugitive operations that it can 

 scarcely be measured with accuracy. The product under such 

 circumstances may bear only a nominal vakie, represented mostly 

 by the cost of digging or possibly of washing and screening as well. 

 On the other hand the marketing of sand and gravel in the larger 

 cities is a business organized on a stable and permanent basis, 

 involving considerable capital investment that has to be considered 

 in the costs of production and selling prices for the output. Thus a 

 large proportion of the total value of building sand that is sold 

 annually is represented by the output of a relatively small number 

 of producers in Nassau county who are tributary to the New York 

 City market. 



Besides building sand the State contains molding sands, glass sands 

 and sands suitable for other purposes of metallurgy and manufacturing. 

 The molding sand business is especially important; large quantities 

 of the finer grades used in making small iron castings and in brass 

 and altiminum work are shipped from the Hudson valley. Glass 

 sand occurs in the vicinity of Oneida lake and on the shores of Long 

 island and it has been obtained in past years by crushing of certain 

 pure quartz- sandstones like the Shawangunk grit. Fire sands and 

 core sands are refractory quartz sands that occur in a few places. 

 Polishing sand used on rubbing beds of stone-cutting establishments, 

 engine sand for railroads and filter sand for municipal filtration 

 plants are also obtained from local deposits. 



Distribution. Most of the unconsolidated surficial sands are of 

 glacial origin. Some were laid down under the ice as part of the 

 ground moraine; others as accumulations at the margin of the glacier 

 of the materials embedded in or transported upon the ice. In the 

 latter class of deposits the sorting action of water is apparent in 



