DESCRIPTION OF SAND8TONE QUARRIES 



401 



cities and towns. "The belt of country in which it is quarried 

 is nearly one hundred miles long in New York, stretching from 

 the southwestern towns of Albany county, across Greene and 

 Ulster and the western part of Orange and eastern part of Sulli- 

 van counties to the Delaware river. In Albany and Greene 

 counties it is narrow, as also in Saugerties in Ulster county, mak- 

 ing the foot hills, as it were, on the east and east southeast of 

 the Catskill mountains, and bounded on the east by the older 

 limestone formations. It widens in the towns of Kingston, 

 Woodstock, Hurley, Olive and Marbletown, and in them the 

 quarries are distributed over the 500-foot plateau which borders 

 the mountains on the southeast. To the northwest, and in the 

 valley of the Esopus creek, many localities near the line of the 

 Ulster and Delaware railroad have been opened and worked. 

 They are a part of thebluestone district geographically, although 

 the geological formations are not the equivalent of the main belt 

 at the southeast. There are scattering localities in the towns of 

 Kochester and Wawarsing and thence southwest, in Sullivan 

 county, which furnish bluestone for local markets, and for expor 

 tation where they are situated near enough to lines of shipping." 



The belt, as above described, has in it outcrops of shales and 

 sandstones, belonging to the several geological formations, from 

 the Hamilton period to and including the Catskill, in short, rocks 

 of the Upper Devonian age. There are quarries along the Hud- 

 son river at New Baltimore, and thence southward, at Coxsackie 

 and Catskill and near Kondout, but they are not in the typical 

 bluestone, but in sandstone of the Hudson Eiver group. The 

 quarries of Palenville and vicinity, of West Saugerties, High 

 Woods, Boiceville, Phoenicia, Woodland Hollow, Shandaken, 

 and Pine Hill are above the horizon of the Hamilton forma- 

 tion and probably all in the Catskill group of rocks. The 

 Oneonta sandstone, which is the equivalent of the Portage group, 

 may form a part of the belt near the foot of the mountains, but 

 it is impossible to define its limits and to designate the quarries 

 in it. The (marries at Koxbury and Margaretville and their 

 vicinity are in the Catskill formation. The openings along the 

 Port Jervis, Monticello and New York railroad, in .Sullivan 

 county, are probably in the same horizon. The main bluestone 



