152 NKW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Bald Mountain limestone has been quarried at Bald moun- 

 tain and at Middle Falls. On the west face of Bald mountain the 

 steep western limb of the overturned anticline which this limestone 

 forms there, produces a limestone face lOO feet high, which was 

 well adapted to easy and rapid quarrying. The greater part of the 

 material was burned for lime on the spot. 



Ruedemann furnishes the following notes on quarries in this 

 limestone noted by him : 



The quarry at Middle Falls, which has furnished the fauna, is 

 a small one, showing some 25 feet of heavy bedded limestone quite 

 like that at Bald mountain. The beds are nearly horizontal. The 

 quarry was long ago abandoned, but the material was probably 

 used exclusively for lime. 



A half mile west of Middle Falls, on the west bank of Batten 

 kill, at the bend, is a much larger quarry, exposing a thickness 

 of 50 feet of beds, 20 feet of dolomite beneath, and 30 feet of 

 limestone above. The beds are here nearly vertical, with steep dip 

 to west and northeast strike. One and one-fourth miles farther 

 south is another large quarry, and a smaller one vet farther south. 

 The bulk of the material Quarried was burned for lime, but the less 

 massive beds were also utilized in structural work. In the report 

 on the first district Mather sneaks of the quarries here, which were 

 in active operation at that time.^ 



It is some 40 years since this industry lapsed. There is a large 

 quantity of excellent limestone along this belt, and when the 

 available material at Glens Falls approaches exhaustion, a revival 

 of operations here is not unlikely. 



Normanskill grits. There are several abandoned quarries in the 

 grit bands of the Normanskill shales in the vicinity of Quaker 

 Springs. These durable sandstones had a wide use all over the 

 region for structural purposes, but the quarries have been idle for 

 some 20 years. 



MINERAL WATERS 



The district centering at Saratoga Springs has long been famous 

 for its mineral waters, and especially for its very distinctive, highly 

 carbonated, saline waters. There are in addition numerous sul- 

 phur springs in the region, which would probably have a wider 

 repute had the other waters not been also present. 



The sulphur waters of the region all rise from the black shales 

 (Canajoharie, Normanskill, Snake Hill), and taste strongly of sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen, derived no doubt from the decomposition of 



I 



1 Geol. First Dist., p. 403. 



