394 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886 



The texture is firm and compact, and it acquires a good surface and 

 polish. The gray variety is coarser, and often somewhat cellular, owing 

 to the imperfect filling of the spaces between the fossil particles of 

 which it is composed. A section of the quarry shows the gray stone 

 to occur in a bed about 4 feet in thickness, and the buff oolitic about 6 

 feet in thickness, the layers of which vary from 18 to 24 inches each. 



Near Marion Center, in Marion County, there is quarried a light-drab 

 cellular magnesian limestone of Permian age, that has been used in the 

 construction of the asylum for the blind and insane at Wyandotte and 

 Topeka, in this State. Similar stones are quarried at Cottonwood, in 

 Chase County. The stratum of quarry rock here is some 6 feet in 

 thickness and blocks of any desired size and of thickness not ex- 

 ceeding 2J feet can bo obtained. The principal markets for these stones 

 are Kansas City, Mo. ; Lincoln and Omaha, Nebr. ; Pueblo and Denver, 

 Colo., and Atchison, Topeka, and Leavenworth, Kans. 



In the vicinity of Fort Scott are some half a dozen irregularly worked 

 quarries which furnish stone for building foundations and pavements 

 in the near vicinity. The stone is dark colored, finegrained, and semi- 

 crystalline, and is said to stand the wear of from ten to fifteen years 7 

 exposure very well. It turns to a brownish color on long exposure and is 

 strong enough for ordinary structures. The stone quarried at Winfield 

 is a light-colored, fine-grained cellular rock and so soft as to be quarried 

 by means of plug and feathers only, the holes being first bored by 

 means of a common auger without point. It is a handsome stone and 

 has a good reputation for durability. It is used mostly in this State, 

 though some is shipped to Kansas City, Mo.* 



Many of the towns in Butler County produce fine grained, light-col- 

 ored limestones suitable for rough building in the immediate vicinity, 

 but not at all suitable for ornamental work. 



Illinois. — No siliceous crystalline rocks of any kind are to be found 

 within the State limits, almost the entire product being limestone or 

 dolomites, with a few quarries of sandstone, which are noticed on p. 448. 



The most notable of the limestones of this State is the fine grained, 

 very light- colored Niagara stone, quarried in the vicinity of Lemont and 

 Joliet, in Will County. According to Professor Couover,! the Lemont 

 quarries lie on both sides of the Illinois and Lake Michigan Canal, and 

 the beds of stone are quarried to their lower limits through a variable 

 thickness of from 12 to 40 feet. The stone here is uniformly a fine- 

 grained, homogeneous, light-drab limestone, occurring in beds from G 

 to 24, and sometimes 30 inches in thickness. The beds are divided ver- 

 tically by seams occurring at intervals of from 12 to 50 feet, and con- 

 tinuing with smooth faces for long distances, and also by a second set 

 running nearly at right angles with the first, but only continuous be 

 tween massive joints and at irregular intervals. This structure renders 



'Professor Brodhead in Report of Tenth Census, pp. 275-277. 

 t Report ot Tenth Census, p. 221. 



