HELDERBERG DIVISION. 
327 
in the First district. Through this long distance, the outcrop of these rocks is not concealed 
more than twenty or twenty-five miles, and this only at intervals of a few miles, where they 
are covered by the quaternary deposits of the Mamakating valley, between Rochester and the 
Delaware river at Carpenter’s point. 
Numerous quarries may be opened near to water transportation, for the supply of the New- 
York and other markets, from the “ High Rocks” above Kingston point, by Rondout, Eddy- 
ville, Rosendale, Lawrenceville, Highfalls, Rochester and Wawarsing, and which shall be 
within a few rods to one half mile of canal or river navigation. 
Strata of these rocks are from a few inches to three feet thick, from which the stone can 
be taken out in regular and sound blocks of almost any desired size. 
These stones vary from ash grey to black, and present almost every shade between these 
colors. Blocks may be selected of uniform texture. Stones can be procured here as hand¬ 
some as at the celebrated Amsterdam quarries, where so many are quarried for the Erie canal, 
and for the Albany, Troy and New-York markets. 
The blocks from some of these beds are susceptible of a high polish, and will undoubtedly 
make as valuable black and dark colored marbles, as those at Glensfalls and Swanton. 
Some of the strata will yield fine and beautiful marbles, black, grey, and veined like the 
“ Egyptian,” but with white and grey veins instead of yellow, and perhaps more difficult to 
work. 
Some are also fitted for building purposes, as for public and private edifices, bridges, aque¬ 
ducts, and canal locks. The layers, or individual strata, are frequently seen two, three, four 
and five or six feet in thickness, and perfectly sound, in large blocks. All the strata of this 
series, as well as those above and below, are intersected by two main systems of joints nearly 
perpendicular to each other, and these parallel joints are frequently within the distance of a 
few feet. In consequence of these natural divisions, the rock is easily quarried in large blocks 
from five to fifty tons weight, and these are easily wedged into blocks of the sizes required 
for buildings or other purposes. 
There is an extensive quarry about three miles from Coxsackie landing, on the road to 
Greenville, owned by Mr. Melantho Bellows. Blocks have been quarried at this place for 
the weigh-lock in Albany. The rock is one of the strata of the Water lime, or the lowest of 
the Pentamerus limestone, near the base of the Helderberg limestone series. The stone is 
hard and more expensive to dress than some others, but it is a material that will stand un¬ 
changed for any finite period of time. Blocks of almost any required size may be easily 
procured. 
Another quarry that is extensively w’rought for heavy blocks for the Erie canal enlargement, 
is on the farm of Abram Verplanck, esquire, in Coeymans, about four miles from the landing at 
Coeymans and New-Baltimore. As good and as large blocks can be procured at this quarry 
as at the one before mentioned ; and while the stone seems to be as indestructible as that of 
the other quarry, it has the advantage of being much more easily dressed and quarried. It 
was said to me, that had the contractor for the lock stone known of this quarry, on commenc- 
