SURVEY OF THE ISLAND OF NEW-YORK. 
583 
indistinctly stratified, and that on the north and southwest portion is well stratified, and rests 
side by side with the gneiss. In the extreme northwestern portion, where the fibres are finer 
than in the east, it was attempted some ten years ago to work the rock for soapstone, to be 
applied to the various uses of this article in the arts; but it proved to be too hard, and the 
attempt entirely failed, as it is said, to the ruin of the man who attempted it. Notwithstand¬ 
ing this, the locality of this rock was not known to scientific men until quite recently, although 
boulders of great size have been found in almost every part of the island. 
It is quite remarkable, that at the junction of the anthophyllite with the gneiss, it is so 
sudden that there is no intermixing of the two, but each remains perfectly distinct, side by 
side, a stratum of anthophyllite and a stratum of gneiss, and each pursuing its own pecu¬ 
liarity within the space of three or four inches of its neighbor. 
32d to 63d-street: Having followed the banks of the river from the chemical works, or 
from the vicinity of 32d-street to 63d-street, we return and ascend the 10th avenue. 
From 32d to 37th-street, on the avenue, is a hill of some forty to fifty feet in height, of 
solid gneiss, containing large veins of coarse granite, too shaky to admit working into finished 
work. Strike north to north by 10° east. Dip west 80° to 90°. 
From 37th to 42d-street, is a valley to be filled up. It contains, from the avenue to the 
river, many huge granite boulders, ten to fifteen feet diameter, angular surface, and apparently 
little worn. 
42d to 44th-street: The gneiss and granite mixed in great confusion, so that it is almost 
impossible to recognize the strike or dip, which are very near the same as at the last obser¬ 
vation, namely, strike north to north 10° east, and dip nearly vertical. 
44th to 47th-street: Mostly granite, and especially on the west side, appears above the 
surface of the soil, and large quantities are put into shape for the Croton water-works. It is 
of a tolerably good quality, but not equal to that on the block above. 
47th to 48th-street: The same rock (granite) continues on both sides, but is the most 
abundant on the west. Here the gneissoid structure entirely disappears ; nothing but granite 
is seen except here and there as a vein, or thin stratum. The granite is of a superior quality, 
and occupies more than a block north and south, and east and west from the 10th avenue 
across the 11th avenue nearly to the river, the whole or nearly the whole appearing from the 
indications on the surface to be sound and workable granite, of a superior quality. It resem¬ 
bles the Hollowell granite, but has a somewhat coarse texture. 
48th to 49th-street: The rock is gneiss, with large veins of granite, from ten to twenty 
feet wide, and of good quality for working into fine work. 
49th to 50th-street; The rock more purely gneiss in structure, but the materials are more 
granitose than those in the last block. 
50th to 56th-street, or about this point, the rock dips far below the surface, and reappears 
as we go north near 58th-street, and is continuous above the surface from thence to 62d-street. 
It is all gneiss, containing here and there a vein of granite. The gneiss is fissile, and very 
tender, so that much of it is broken up with crowbars. 
