64 CEMENT MATERIALS AND INDUSTRY. I hill. L'43. 
The Cambrian limestones contain generally a very considerable pro- 
portion of magnesia, and for this reason are not suited for Portland 
cement manufacture, though admirably adapted for furnace stone. 
Along the eastern border of the Coosa Valley, near its contact witt 
the metamorphic rock, there is a belt of limestone which, in places, i< 
a white crystalline marble of great purity, as is shown by analyses 1 to 
7, inclusive, of the table on page 70. The Louisville and Nashville Rail 
road from Calera to Talladega passes close to this belt at many points 
This marble has been quarried at several places for ornamental stone 
It is mentioned here because it is near the railroad and its description 
completes the account of the limestone. 
MISSISSIPPIAN (" LOWER CARBONIFEROUS") LIMESTONES. 
Limestones of suitable quality for cement manufacture occur in th 
Bangor limestone of the Mississippian ( wi Lower Carboniferous r )i 
Perhaps the most accessible occurrences of this rock are in the Ten 
nessee Valley to the west of Tuscumbia and south of the river an 
railroad. Here the quarries of Fossick <& Co. were formerly located I 
Their quarries at this time are farther east, but at a greater distanc 
from the river, in Lawrence County north of Russellville. This out 
crop extends thence eastward along the base of Little Mountain as fai 
as Whitesburg, above which place to Guntersville the river flow 
through a valley floored with Mississippian limestone. The Souther 
Railway passes over outcrops of this rock in most of the mountai 
coves east of Huntsville, and from Scottsboro to the Tennessee lir 
the country rock is almost entirety of this formation. The Louisvil 
and Nashville Railroad south of Decatur nearly to Wilhite is most) 
in the same formation. These two lines, together with Tenness( 
River, would provide ample means of transportation for the rock ( 
for the finished product. An analysis of the rock from the Fossic 
quarries is given in the table on page 68. 
In Browns Valley, south of Brooksville, the Bangor limestone is tl 
prevailing rock across the valley, and at Bangor and Blount Spring 
on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, there are extensive quarri 
which have been worked for many years to supply rock for fluxii 
purposes to the furnaces of the Birmingham district. Analyses No 
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, on page 68, show the composition of avenu. * 
samples from these quarries; 5 to 9, inclusive, are of carload sample 
From Brooksville to the Tennessee line a great thickness of tli 
limestone is exposed along the western escarpment and below the t< 
of Sand Mountain, which is capped by sandstones of the Coal Measure 
In this area the river runs near the foot of the mountain and wou 
afford the means of transportation. 
In similar manner the Bangor limestone outcrops along the weste 
flank of Lookout Mountain in Little Wills Valley, from near Atta 
