FAYETTE COUNTY. 445 



tion. The exact locality where the greatest thickness can be observed 

 is on the Washington and Leesburg road, west of Rattlesnake Creek — 

 the hill in the rear of the school-house has an exposure near the summit. 

 Going from the Falls of Rattlesnake, near Monroe, in Highland county, 

 against the stream, after leaving behind the Niagara at the Palls, and 

 some distance above, the next stone in position is the Lower Helderberg. 

 The fine building stone of Lexington and Greenfield belongs to the 

 lower strata of the Water-Lime. The same quality of stoiie has not 

 been found on the Rattlesnake ; whether it occurs there or not remains 

 to be seen. Within the Fayette county line, along the creek, from one 

 hundred to one hundred and twenty-five feet in perpendicular measure- 

 ment are found. In the lower strata of this exposure numerous bivalvu- 

 lar moilusks were obtained which I have not identified. On Paint Creek, 

 near Smith's Mill, a profusion of a small moUusk, in a broken and con- 

 fused condition, was noticed. These I did not find on Rattlesnake. In the 

 higher strata no organic remains were obtained. This stone, through the 

 entire one hundred and twenty-five feet, maintained strikingly the same 

 characteristics. When exposed to the air in masonry, this stone resists 

 the weathering influences on the surface, but is liable to shell off and actu- 

 ally becomes fissured, through and through, until massive blocks become 

 nothing more than a tottering collection of loose splinters and fragments. 

 This stone is not now approved as material for bridge abutments or 

 foundation walls. If a slab from eight inches to a foot in thickness is 

 struck a few smart blows with a hand hammer, it not only fractures 

 through and through, but breaks into pieces often not more than one or 

 two inches in any dimension. The fracture is, in every instance, con- 

 choidal. The stone is of an uniform texture, new fractures having a 

 velvety appearance, with a fresh, brown color. It has been burned into 

 lime, but I could not ascertain anything definite as to its quality. As 

 the stone contains lime and alumina, there may be some portions of it 

 adapted to the manufacture of hydraulic lime. Some of the higher 

 strata resemble the Rittenhouse stone in the northern part of Ross 

 county, which makes a good quality of water-lime. The striated rock 

 on Paint Creek, near Smart's Mill, spoken of heretofore, is referred to 

 this formation as the equivalent of that on Rattlesnake. There does 

 not occur any more bedded rook on Rattlesnake above this development 

 not referred to. But above the exposures near Smart's Mill, on Paint 

 Creek, occur strata successively as one ascends the stream. In fact, all 

 the bedded rock which occurs in Fayette county, except a limited ex- 

 posure on Deer Creek, in the extreme eastern part of the county, is rep- 

 resented in that which is encountered on Paint Creek from near the 



