BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 411 



and unchangeable that in some cases even the marks of the tool remain 

 upon it to the present day. A specimen of red granite now in the 

 Museum, and formerly a portion of one of these obelisks, still shows the 

 original carving made upon it upwards of three thousand years ago. 



There is probably no country on the globe in which so large a pro 

 portion of its stone buildings are of granitic rock as the United States. 

 This fact is due rather to the ready accessibility of the rock in those 

 portions that were earliest settled than to any very decided preference 

 on the part of the builder. The United States Government has of late 

 shown a decided preference for granite in the construction of its public 

 buildings, and has often had it transported many hundreds of miles, at 

 a cost that never would have been undertaken by private capitalists. 

 One item that tends to increase the cost of our granite, and other stone 

 buildings as well, to a seemingly needless extent is the fact that 

 American tastes seem yet incapable of appreciating any but smoothly- 

 dressed or carved stone in a wall. This fact is, it seems to the writer, 

 greatly to be regretted, since, with the majority of stones, better and 

 more majestic effects can be produced by rock-faced and rubble- work 

 than in any other manner, and at a much less cost. 



Probably the most elaborate granite buildings now in the United 

 States are the State, War, and Navy Department Buildings in Wash- 

 ington and the new capitol at Albany, N. Y. 



(4) GRANITES OF THE VARIOUS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



California. — It is stated* that the first stone house erected in San 

 Francisco was built of stone brought from China, and at the present 

 day the granites most employed are brought from Scotland and the East- 

 ern United States. However this may be, it is obvious that this condi- 

 tion of affairs need not long continue to exist, since granites of good 

 quality occur in inexhaustible quantity in the near vicinity. As early 

 as 1853 a granite quarry was opened in Sacramento County, and since 

 then others have been opened and systematically worked in Penryn 

 and Rocklin in Placer County. The Penryn works are some 28 miles 

 east from Sacramento on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad. 

 The first quarries were opened in 1864 and are now said to cover 

 some 680 acres at Penryn and Rocklin,t the latter point being some 

 6 or 8 miles distant from the former in a westerly direction. 



The rock varies in color from light to dark gray, one variety, which 

 contains both hornblende and biotite, being almost black on a polished 

 surface. They are as a rule fine grained, and take a good polish. 

 Blocks more than 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 10 feet thick have 

 been quarried out and afterwards broken up.J 



The buildings mentioned below have been constructed wholly or in 



*Building Stone and Quarry Industry, Report Tenth Census, Vol. X, p. 2. 

 tThe Rocklin stone is rather a quartz diorite than a true granite. 

 t Mineral Resources of the United States, 1883, p. 455. 



