No. 50.] 
417 
either side of the valley as we approach the river, and after crossing, it 
again turns to the north, till it comes in a line with the general east and 
west strike of the rocks. 
The hydraulic limestone has been burned at Caledonia and used 
in some works near this place, but it was found to possess too little co- 
hesive power, and did not sustain the structures. This is the only trial 
that I am aware having been made of the cement from this place. I 
see no sufficient reason why some parts of it may not make as good 
cement as the same rock in other places. Were it the proper place to 
introduce the subject, much might be said on the causes of failure in 
preparing and using the lime made from this rock at various places. — 
In the first place the component parts of the rock should be known, the 
character and proportion of sand depending on the composition of the 
lime, and the variable composition of the sand rendering different pro- 
portions necessary for the same lime. The composition of sands ne- 
cessarily varying at different localities, has often more influence on the 
compound than the lime itself. The mode of preparing, fquantity of 
water &c. used in preparation, all have an influence, and an important 
one. 
For a distance of two or three miles southeast of the village of Cale- 
donia, thin flat masses of the drab limestone are scattered over the sur- 
face, in many places in sufficient quantities for enclosures ; its out-crop- 
ping edges often approach so near the surface as to be turned up by the 
plough. Three and a half miles southeast of Caledonia the drab lime- 
stone is quarried in large quantities for use on the Genesee Valley canal. 
The quarry is owned by Mr. Wadsworth of Geneseo. There are about 
twenty feet in thickness of the rock exposed ; the lower part is in thin 
layers of a bluish color, striped with lighter bands. The succeediiig 
courses are from two to two and a half feet thick, of a drab color strip- 
ed with darker; it is easily quarried, splitting into masses of any dimen- 
sions, and becomes very hard and brittle on exposure. The upper se- 
ven feet of the mass is often in one course, though generally divided 
into two ; this portion, and a course of two feet below, contain nume- 
rous irregular cavities, often filled with greenish clay, gypsum, sulphate 
of strontian, blende &c. In some of these cavities there are remains 
of some coralline fossils, the greater part having been dissolved out, 
probably by the action of sulphuric acid, which formed with the lime 
gypsum and with strontian its sulphate. 
[Assembly, No. 50,] 
53 
