BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. o97 



eveD texture, and is composed of small rounded concretionary grains 

 of about the size of a grain of mustard seed compactly cemented to- 

 gether by crystalline lime or calcite. The stone is soft, but tenacious 

 (specimens having borne a pressure of 12,000 pounds per square inch), 

 and works readily in every direction. It is therefore a great favorite 

 for carved work, and is used more extensively for this purpose than any 

 other of our limestones. No better example of the adaptability of the 

 stone for this purpose can be given than the elegant mansion of Mr. C. 

 J. Vanderbilt, on Fifth avenue, in New York City. Unfortunately, as 

 is usually the case with light limestones, this stains badly in cities where 

 there is a great amount of manufacturing, as is only too well illustrated 

 in the case referred to. 



Although the quarries have been worked systematically for but a few 

 years, the stone is already widely known, and is coming into very gen- 

 eral use in nearly every city of importance in the country. At the 

 principal quarries, which are situated near Bedford, Lawrence County, 

 the stone occurs in a solid bed, that has been worked to a depth of 40 

 feet without reaching the bottom. 



Stones very similar in general appearance, but not always so dis- 

 tinctly oolitic and often containing a considerable percentage of bitu- 

 minous matter, also occur and are extensively quarried at Ellettsville, 

 in Monroe County. Other localities not so extensively worked occur in 

 Owen, Washington, Crawford, and Harrison Counties. Samples re- 

 ceived at the Museum from near Cory don in the last-named county are 

 of a beautifully fine and even oolitic structure, very light color, firm 

 and compact. They resemble the oolitic stone from Princeton, Ky., 

 more closely than any other, but are much more compact. The stone 

 is stated to occur in inexhaustible quantities. 



The Washington County deposit at Salem is said to be a very hue one, 

 there being a solid bed of the oolite 30 feet in thickness, with only about 

 5 feet of cap rock. , 



Other limestones or dolomites of excellent quality, but lacking the 

 oolitic structure, occur in many parts of the State. A compact, fine- 

 grained drab stone, taking a very good polish and also of subCarbonif- 

 erous age, occurs at Greencastle, Putnamville, and Okalla, in Putnam 

 County, and is quarried for lime and for building purposes in the vari- 

 ous cities and towns in the vicinity. There is quarried at Bedford also 

 a fine grained semi-crystalline, dark-gray stone, which is capable of a 

 variety of uses. 



Near Silverville, in Lawrence County, there occurs a very fine-grained 

 compact stone of a drab color, that acquires readily a smooth and even 

 surface. An attempt has been made to utilize this for lithographic 

 purposes, but, it is stated, with indifferent success. It bears a close re- 

 semblance to the darker variety of the well-kuown Bavarian litho- 

 graphic stone, but is somewhat harder. 

 As will be noticed, nearly all the quarries mentioned lie in that por- 



