25 [Assembly 
In Clinton county, there is a black marble with organic remains, 
which takes a high polish and almost equals the Irish. In Franklin 
county, near Pottsdam, extensive beds occur of a white marble, which, 
although easily wrought, has a sufficiently compact structure. And 
finally, St. Lawrence county contains many localities of a similar kind; 
but the limestones found here are not usually susceptible of much polish 
in consequence of the foreign minerals which they contain. 
Such is a hurried view of the principal depositories of marble in this 
State; and even from this it is quite apparent that both as it regards 
quantity and quality, our resources, in this important article, are ample. 
Its value to us is as yet scarcely appreciated. Every coming year must 
serve to unfold it. The number of our public works, and the increasing 
attention to the beauty and durability of building materials, must ope- 
rate as inducements to the proprietors of quarries to test the properties 
of the strata which they contain. Such is the nature of our climate, 
that it is perhaps of more consequence here than in any other country, 
that materials for important structures should be carefully examined, 
and such only be employed as are proof against those destructive agen- 
cies which are so incessantly in operation. 
31. The minerals of which I have just been treating, also furnish^ 
by calcination, an article scarcely inferior in importance to any other. 
I refer of course to lime, the quantity of which annually consumed in 
this State, must be enormous. This quantity, moreover, must con- 
stantly increase, in consequence of the new uses to which it is applied; 
as for example, in agriculture, the preparation of chloride of lime, &c. 
The following remarks from a report of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, on 
the geology of the State of Maine, will serve to convey some idea of 
the value of this article: 
" Few perhaps realize the fact," says he, " that there are no less than 
fourteen millions of dollars worth of limestone within twenty feet of 
the surface in Thomason; and that already, while but a trifling portion 
of the stone is exported, nearly half a million of dollars are annually 
realized from the sales of lime; besides which, we also have to estimate 
the value of the carrying trade, the whole business being in the hands 
of the citizens of Maine." " The lime," the same gentleman remarks, 
serves to supply nearly all the cities on the Atlantic coast with the 
lime used in their buildings, and for agriculture."* 
* Second report on the Geology of the State of MainCf by Charles T. Jackson, M. D. Spe. 
im 
