464 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



acid, and as carbonate of lime has a much greater affinity for that acid 

 than does the carbonate of magnesia, it will not be so easily affected by the 

 weather. 



These limestones lie in beds varying in thickness from an inch to three 

 feet. The beds are generally separated by thin beds of clay, making it very 

 easy to get out the stone in the quarry. The beds are generally very regular 

 in thickness, and the rocks may be taken up and put into a wall in the same 

 manner in which they were bedded, rendering no dressing necessary except 

 the exposed edges that show in the wall. The color is quite uniform through- 

 out a layer for long distances, and such is the texture that in weathering the 

 color will still be uniform. The localities where this stone occurs are so nu- 

 merous that it would be an impossible thing to mention all of them. It be- 

 gins a few miles south of San Angelo, at the old town of Ben Ficklin, and 

 extends continuously to the north line of Baylor County, a distance of one 

 hundred and fifty miles, and in some places is several miles wide. 



Wherever this stone has been used it has given the best satisfaction. 



A quarry has been opened at the old town of Ben Ficklin, and the stone 

 used very extensively in the city of San Angelo in the construction of some 

 of the largest public and private buildings. It was also used for building 

 the piers for the bridges across the Concho River in that county. 



The houses at Fort Concho are built of this limestone, and have been 

 erected for thirty years, yet they show no effect from weathering except that 

 they are a little whiter than when they were first built. 



The beds of limestones are in several layers and are easily quarried. The 

 thickness of the beds vary from six inches to three feet. 



At Ballinger a quarry has been opened at the top of the hill on the south 

 side of the river, and one north in the north edge of the town; they are both 

 of the same stratum of limestone. This limestone has been used extensively 

 in the town of Ballinger for building purposes. The court house is built 

 from material from this quarry, as are also the piers for the railroad bridge 

 across the Colorado River west of the town of Ballinger, and across Elm 

 Creek east of the town. 



The limestone at the top of the hill where the quarry has been opened is 

 in a regular bed three feet thick. It has two lines of fracture, one due north 

 and the other north 45° east, with the magnetic variation at 9-J-° east. The 

 hill is eighty feet high, and a section made at this place shows the entire hill 

 composed of alternating beds of limestone and clay. 



On the north side of town a quarry has been opened on the same bed which 

 will give equally as good stone. The convenience of these quarries to railway 

 transportation ought to make them very desirable. 



At the old town of Reynolds, five miles north of Ballinger, a quarry was 



