No. 50J 
233 
working, and are nearest to good roads leading to the Hudson river. 
The strata he nearly horizontal, pitching very shghtly to the northwest 
from the Delaware to Woodstock,* then westward to east of Rensse- 
laerville, then southwestward and southward to Summit in Schoharie 
county. 
Other varieties of the grits of the Catskill mountain series are quar- 
ried to some extent for grindstones^ for which some of the strata are 
well adapted. Ruhstones or whetstones of various degrees of fineness, 
hardness and sharpness of grit, might be procured, and have been ob- 
tained in Monticello, on both branches of the Delaware, and on the Bea- 
verkill and Willewemack river. Grindstones are quarried in Cobles- 
kill and Fulton in Schoharie county. 
Some of the shales that crumble by exposure to the weather, would, 
it is believed, be useful as mineral manures or marls on the lighter soils 
of this region. They contain more or less lime and some pyrites, and 
by decomposition would form a portion of sulphate of lime or gypsum. 
There are numerous strata of red, gray and black shales in this forma- 
tion, that crumble easily, and when quarried, require nothing more 
than exposure to the frosts and weather to prepare them for strewing 
over the soil. 
Beautiful building stones have been quarried from the Catskill moun- 
tain series in many places, which come out of th© quarry in regular 
layers, from 6 to 15 inches thick, with faces along the joints of the rock 
perpendicular to the layers, and smooth as if sawed. They have been 
particularly noticed in Meredith and Kortright, in Delaware county, and 
near the mouth of the Willewemack river, in Sullivan county. 
Brine sjnHngs, licks, <^c. ' ■ ' ■ 
Salt water occurs in the Catskill mountain series in Delaware, and 
probably in some of the other counties. Deer licks are numerous in 
Delaware county, but these are not always an indication of salt water, 
for wild animals will lick the clay and rocks where there is almost any 
soluble saline substance. Salt is said to have been formerly made by the 
hunters on the farm of George Dane, 3j miles from the village of Col- 
* From the Delaware to Wawarsing, the strata next the valley of the Delaware and 
Hudson canal are all upturned at a high angle, and the flag stone stratum throughout 
this distance is upheaved in the same way as the adjacent rocks. 
[Assembly, No. 50.J 30 
