CHAUTAUQUE COUNTY. 
497 
barrels of lime. A few miles southeast of Fredonia, a large mass of the water limestone was 
found, which burned into quicklime of a dark color. This gave rise to the belief of the exis¬ 
tence of the same rock in place in the neighborhood, but it will not be found south of the lime¬ 
stone terrace in Erie county. 
In the southwest corner of the town of Clymer, and within a few rods of the Pennsylvania 
line, Mr. Beardsley has opened a quarry which affords good grindstones. The rock is of 
great extent, and can be easily quarried for all the supply required. It is of the same stratum 
as that quarried in Freedom in Cattaraugus county, and in Rushford in Allegany county. The 
same is also to be seen in the western bank of the Little Broken Straw, below Panama. It is 
here characterized by a species of fucoid, found also at Freedom and Rushford. 
Few of the layers are thick enough to afford good building stone, though there are some 
quarries of this kind in the Portage group. The principal which I have seen in Chatauque 
county, are near Forrestville, and about four miles from Fredonia, on the line of the railroad. 
The rocks from the two quarries near the railroad have been used in constructing the arches 
over the streams for the passage of the road, and in the public works at the harbor of Dun¬ 
kirk. 
Quarries have been opened at Shumla on the Canadawa creek, and at Laona on the same 
stream. The mass at Laona is about five feet thick ; the upper three feet often forming but 
a single course, thus affording blocks of large dimensions. It is highly bituminous, and petro¬ 
leum is seen on the water which rises from the earth in the vicinity of the rock. Going south¬ 
ward this mass becomes much thinner, and at Westfield there is no appearance of it, except 
in a layer of about one foot thickness, and considerably changed in character. It appears to 
have been deposited in a depression of the strata below, which causes it to grow thinner on 
either side. 
About three miles south of Fredonia, there is a quarry of shale and sandstone from which 
some blocks have been obtained of about a foot in thickness ; these are succeeded by shale 
and thin layers of sandstone. 
The rocks occupying the high grounds of the southern part of Erie and the northern part 
of Chautauque afford excellent flagging stones, some of them of large dimensions. Those 
about Boston, in Erie county, are commonly eight to ten feet long and ten to twelve broad, 
and sometimes are obtained of twice these dimensions. Near Westfield, in Chatauque county, 
these flagging stones are obtained of very large dimensions, often fifteen or twenty feet in 
length, with a width of ten or twelve feet. The surfaces of these are rippled in large waves. 
The same courses of rock are very extensive, and everywhere furnish this material. 
The localities enumerated under the head of Conglomerate, afford excellent building stone 
of any required dimensions. From some of these places large blocks of stone for pillars, 
etc. have been taken to Mayville, Dunkirk and Buffalo. 
Carburetted hydrogen gas is every where common in the higher rocks of New-York, and 
in Chautauque county is unusually abundant. In many places the escape of this gas is ac¬ 
companied with petroleum, which forms a pellicle upon the surface of the water, indicating 
[Geol. 4th Dist.] 63 
