258 
[Assembly 
tenheimer, Cresis, Howland and Yawger. There is another quarry to 
the east of all these, owned by Mr. Thompson. These quarries lie 
farther to the south than any known in the district, extending with the 
lower deposit found at Montezuma, along a north and south line of 
about thirteen miles. For quality they are superior to any in the de- 
posit, the masses also are larger, yielding often from 300 to 1,000 tohis. 
They have all been denuded, for they are surrounded and covered by the 
most modern, the third, br upper alluvial of Chittenango, presenting 
none of these terminal associates, if we except the mass in which it was 
originally deposited, whose layers occasionally cover portions of the 
plaster. The matrix of the gypsum is here blackish in colour, earthy in 
its aspect, often variegated, sometimes contains lamillar gypsum, and 
more rarely a little pure sulphur. This mass has the appearance of an 
impure gypsum, and is considered by the quarrymen to be an incipient 
plaster, requiring time alone to make it perfect. 
Some of these quarries are a few feet below the lake. They furnish 
about 10,000 tons yearly; delivered at the head of the lake from $1 .50 
to $2 per ton. 
Richardson's quarry is the first quarry met with going south. It pre* 
sents a face of about 100 or more feet in length, and from 18 to 20 
thick. It is in solid, though not continuous layers, apparently horizon- 
tal. The surface is uneven, as usual with all the plaster masses, com- 
pact, of a dark colour resembling a variegated marble. In the fissures 
of the upper part, and sometimes in its interior, particles of sulphur 
from the size of a pea to an inch are said to be found, also small globular 
masses of white granular gypsum, which is taken for sand. On the top 
of the plaster, in parts, there is the mass before mentioned, w^hich is con- 
sidered to be the commencement of a new crop. The whole is covered 
by 8 or 10 feet of modern alluvial. The bottom of the quarry is a 
dark slate, or slate with nodules of plaster, resembling those of the up- 
per quarries near Chittenango, and on the road to Jamesville. Thii^ 
floor was bored to the depth of 24 feet, all which was said to be in 
plaster. 
The largest mass of plaster is at Yawger's, presenting a continuous 
face for several hundred feet, and from 15 to 25 feet thick. Mr. Yaw- 
ger stated that plaster had been used there since 1811, without diminu- 
tion of its good quality; a bushel of plaster yielded in produce what 
was equal to the cost of a ton. 
