94 
[Assembly 
marble seems the most durable, though all crumble. Mr. Wiltse, the 
superintendent of the prison, informed me that the crumbling stone, 
when put into walls, became harder. This stone is extensively used for 
buildings, but in many instances it has already begun to crumble by 
exposure to the weather. 
Lime is made from this limestone at the quarries, not only for con- 
sumption at the prison, but for sale. Large quantities of the stone are 
sold for the New- Jersey lime kilns, where it is burnt with dust anthra- 
cite coal for manure. 
This stone is also used as a flux in the Cold-Spring furnace. For 
the above purposes of lime and flux, the stone is sold at the wharf at 
37^ cents per ton. 
Limstone lines the shore from Sing-Sing landing to Sparta landing, 
where its contact with granite is seen. The limestone here has the 
aspect of having been upturned, and its layers pitch down towards the 
granite. Augite, Asbestus, and other minerals are much intermixed 
with the limestone near the granite. The strata of limestone north of 
the prison are nearly vertical, and as distinctly stratified as gneiss. 
Crystallized pyrites, magnetic pyrites, and sometimes copper pyrites are 
found in particular layers of the rock. 
The limestone beds pass under the town and must occupy a breadth 
of one-fourth of a mile. 
^ bed of limestone is opened on the hill northeast of Sparta. It is 
coarsely crystalline, and very beautiful. Small pieces of serpentine, 
and traces of iron and copper pyrites were observed very sparsely dis- 
seminated through the mass. 
A bed of limestone is quarried for lime about 30 or 40 rods west of 
Hardy's hotel, at Verplanck. This stratum is bounded on the west by 
horneblende slate, and on the east by hornblende rock. This stratum 
crosses the road about three-fourths of a mile NNE of Hardy's hotel. 
Limestone forms the shore at Verplanck landing, and skirts it for one 
mile to one and one-fourth miles up Peekskill bay. 
Near Verplanck landing the limestone is much injected with veins of 
hornblende, so as to unfit it for making lime. This place is well worth 
the attention of geologists, as showing the intrusion of one rock into 
another. At a small distance north of the landing the limestone is 
free of hornblende, and is nearly a pure limestone making very good 
