QUARRY MATERIALS OF NEW YORK 205 



mental material according to demand. The stone contains upwards 

 of 95 per cent of lime carbonate and is well adapted for building 

 stone, lime, cement and furnace flux. 



LOCKPORT 



The lowermost layers of the Lockport dolomite are represented 

 by a variegated red and gray material with fossil fragments 2 or 3 

 inches long. In polished condition it is quite attractive, but less 

 even in texture than the Chazy marble. There has been no pro- 

 duction of the stone for ornamental uses reported in recent years ; 

 a specimen in the State Museum collections from the quarries of 

 D. J. Carpenter indicates a sound material well suited for building 

 stone. 



SERPENTINOUS MARBLES; VERDE ANTIQUE AND OPHICAL- 



CITE 



The Grenville limestones of the Adirondacks not infrequently 

 carry more or less serpentine, which results from the alteration of 

 anhydrous magnesian silicates of the pyroxene and amphibole 

 groups. With abundant, evenly distributed serpentine there results 

 a mottled green and white stone that possesses an attractive ap- 

 pearance and that has been used for ornamental purposes. A de- 

 scription of these marbles has been given by G. P. Merrill.^ 



At Moriah and Port Henry, in Essex county, in this State, there 

 has been quarried from time to time under the name- of white 

 marble, a peculiar granular stone consisting of an intricate mixture 

 of serpentine, dolomite and calcite interspersed with small flakes 

 of phlogopite. This stone, which is an altered dolomitic and 

 pyroxenic limestone, seems mainly free from the numerous dry 

 seams and joints that prove so objectionable in most serpentines, 

 and can be obtained in sound blocks of fair size. The serpentinous 

 portions are deep green in color, while the calcareous granules are 

 faint blue, or whitish, affording a very pleasing contrast. Blocks 

 being quarried at the time of my visit (1888) showed, however, a 

 very even granular texture of nearly equal parts of serpentine, 

 calcite and dolomite in grains of from one-eighth to one-fourth of 

 an inch in diameter, forming an aggregate quite granitic in appear- 

 ance at a slight distance. The stone polishes well, and is said to 

 be durable. In the quarry bed, where the stone had been exposed 

 for ages, it was noticed that the calcite had weathered out on the 

 surface, leaving the serpentine protruding in small greenish knobs. 

 The stone has been quoted in some of the older quarry price lists 

 at $6 a cubic foot for the best monumental stock. 



1 Stone for Building and Decoration, 1897, p. 65. 



