148 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Syenite Trap Rock Company's quarry 



The Syenite Trap Company's quarry is situated i^ miles east 

 of Little Falls on the north side of the river and New York Central 

 tracks. It was opened about ten years ago on an extensive scale 

 for the purpose of supplying crushed stone for highway, canal and 

 railroad construction. The present quarry cut is nearly 1500 feet 

 long with a face of about 60 feet as a maximum. The stone is 

 quite massive in appearance and is less broken by joints than in 

 most of the exposure. It is extremely tough and resistant in the 

 quarry, showing qualities that fit it for heavy service. The crush- 

 ing plant is built on the side of the cliffs, the stone passing through 

 the successive crushers and screens by gravity into the storage bin 

 from which it can be loaded directly into cars. The plant has a 

 capacity of from 800 to 1000 tons a day. 



An interesting feature, though of some inconvenience to quarry 

 operations, is the presence of numerous pot holes, both on top and 

 side of the: syenite cliffs, which attain a diameter of 30 or 40 feet 

 in some instances. They are filled with transported boulders and 

 pebbles of various rocks, many beautifully rounded and polished. 

 They occur up to 200 feet nearly above the bed of the present river. 

 A pot hole about 70 feet in diameter was encountered in the ex- 

 cavation for the new locks at Little Falls. 



Little Falls Stone Company's quarry 



The site of the Little Falls Stone Company's quarry is on the 

 south side of the Mohawk, opposite the quarries just described. 

 The syenite is exposed as a ledge for a distance of 800 feet in an 

 east-west direction, with a face about 50 feet high in the center, 

 sloping off somewhat toward either end. The rock is rather 

 variable in structure, ranging from a platy schistose type, badly 

 broken up, to a massive, heavily jointed material that has no definite 

 cleavage. The quarry was opened for the supply of crushed stone 

 for cement blocks. A large plant was erected near the quarry for 

 making blocks, but has not been operated for the last four years 

 and the quarries also have been idle during that time. 



GREENFIELD, SARATOGA COUNTY 



The Saratoga Trap Rock Co. has a quarry in the town of Green- 

 field, 3 miles northwest of Saratoga Springs. The rock is a fine- 

 grained diabase, occurring in a dike which strikes N. 20° E. and 

 extends across the line of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad 



