BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 469 



authority states that tlicse slates, though softer than the imported Welsh 

 slates, are equally good. They are reported by Doctor Fitch* as occur, 

 ring in a great variety of colors, passing through almost innumerable 

 shades of gray, brown, black, blue, green, yellow, purple, and red. This 

 last variety, I am informed by Professor Smock, is the most highly valued, 

 bringing about three times the price of the black. It is quarried ex- 

 tensively at North Granville, near the Vermont line, and is regarded as 

 the best of its kind produced in this country. According to Doctor 

 Fitch f the bed of red slate, although at present quarried in only one or 

 two towns, " occurs in a nearly continuous line through the whole length 

 of the slate formation from Vermont to New Jersey." But a small part 

 of this, however, is capable of furnishing material of good quality. 

 Many attempts have been made, as I am informed by Professor Smock, 

 to open quarries in the central and western half of Washington County 

 with but indiiferent success, those now worked being almost altogether 

 in the northeast corner of the county, near the Vermont line. 



Pennsylvania. — The narrow slate belt already noted as occurring in 

 Harford County, Md., crosses the State line into the extreme eastern 

 portion of York County, in Pennsylvania, and thence sweeps around in 

 a gradually narrowing curve to the Susquehanna Eiver, appearing 

 again on its eastern bank, in Fulton Township, Lancaster County, 

 where it finally disappears. It is from this narrow belt, at its greatest 

 dimensions less than a mile wide and scarcely more than six miles 

 long, that has been quarried for many years the justly celebrated blue- 

 black " Peach Bottom slate." The stone is stated to rank very high for 

 strength and durability. It is tough, fine, and smooth in texture,'andis 

 stated not to fade on exposure, buildings on which it has been exposed 

 for upwards of seventy-five years still showing it fresh and unchanged. 

 An analysis of this slate is given in the tables. The principal quar- 

 ries now worked are at Bangor and West Bangor, York County, in 

 Pennsylvania, and at adjacent points just across the line in Maryland. 



The Utica and Hudson Eiver slate formation, in which lie the largest 

 and most important quarries of slate at present worked in this country, 

 extends in a belt of from 7 to 12 miles in width throughout the entire 

 northern parts of Northampton and Lehigh Counties, and thence in a 

 gradually though unevenly narrowing band in a general southwesterly 

 direction through Berks, Lebanon, Dauphin, Cumberland, and Franklin 

 Counties, whence it passes into Maryland. But a very small portion of 

 the thus roughly delineated area is of such a nature as to furnish stone 

 for economic purposes. The quarries at present worked, beginning with 

 the northeastern part of Northampton County, are situated at East 

 Bangor, Bangor, Pen Argyl, Chapman's Station, Catasauqua, Allen- 

 town, dale, Lynnsport, and Stinesville. 



The geological character of the beds and the details regarding the 

 quarries have been described with considerable detail by Mr. E. H. San- 



* Trans. N. Y. Agr. Soc, 1849, p. 830. Wp. cit, p. 834. 



