274 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Moira and Bangor occurrences which were once worked for glass 

 material. The iron content is low, 0.05 per cent or less in the best 

 grades. It is possible in some instances to improve the quality by 

 washing, as the sandstone may have a crumbly texture so as to be 

 readily reduced to a sand. A sample from Moira thus treated, 

 showed silica 99.54; iron 0.0054. Large quantities of the sandstone 

 are sufficiently pure to be used for ferro-silicon manufacture.^ 



Hudson River beds. The so-called Hudson River series includes 

 a great thickness of sandstones and shales which possess a certain 

 uniformity of character and field development but which are really 

 composite of several stratigraphic units, ranging in age from Trenton 

 to Lorraine. The sandstone members are usually fine-grained, not 

 infrequently of the character of silts, light gray to dark blue gray 

 in color. The stone weathers to a brownish yellow tint. It has a 

 tendency to split or scale on exposure, especially the silty layers. 

 The better grades have a siliceous binder; the clayey and calcareous 

 varieties are to be avoided. Some of the quarries afford rectangular 

 blocks with natural joint surfaces which have a soft brown or 

 yellow tone, desirable for architectural work. A number of structures 

 in Albany and vicinity are built of such stone. Over considerable 

 areas the sandstones supply the most available material for founda- 

 tion and general construction purposes and consequently they have 

 been quite extensively used. 



The sandstones with the accompanying shales are exposed over 

 a wide belt along the middle Hudson from Washington and Saratoga 

 counties south to Dutchess and Orange. A second belt reaches 

 up the Mohawk as far as Oneida county. It is only here and there 

 that they are in sufficient force to be quarried, as a rule they occur 

 in thin beds intercalated with the shale. 



Much of the building stone has been obtained in Schenectady 

 and vicinity, while quarries for rubble and foundation stone have 

 been worked at Rhinebeck, New Baltimore, Troy, Albany and 

 other places. The Schenectady quarries afford the natural joint 

 face ashlar to be seen in many churches and public buildings in that 

 city, Albany and Troy. Crushed stone is produced at Schenectady 

 and Albany. 



iJ Medina sandstone. This is one of the most extensively quarried 

 sandstones in the State and is highly esteemed for general building 

 and construction purposes. The better grades which consist of 



^ The information on the chemical character of the sandstone has been suppl'ed 

 by Mr R. J. Colony, who has undertaken an investigation of the high-sil:ca 

 materials of the State. 



