BUILDING STONE. 631 
The quarry of Angel, Miller & Co., situated a half mile west of 
Bellefontaine, exhibits the following section : 
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| Occasionally some lime is burned at this quarry, although its 
amount is small and its quality inferior. 
The material that is at present produced by these quarries is a typical 
dolomite, and in microscopic structure consists of a perfect mass of 
sharply defined large rhombohedral crystals of dolomite cemented 
together by a mass of minute little crystals of the same form and compo- 
sition. In many places the crystals are only attached at their corners, 
leaving angular interspaces, and this accounts for the avidity with which 
water is absorbed by this stone. The fossiliferous character, if any 
originally existed, has been entirely obliterated. In color it is light gray, 
and it works easily and safely. Its microscopic structure is illustrated 
upon the plate at the end of the chapter. 
The first quarry in Marion county was opened in 1825 in what is 
known as the Marion limestone. Tenacres only are considered as belong- 
ing to the quarry. Itis situated in the southeastern part of the town of 
Marion, and is the farthest south of any quarry in the neighborhood pro- 
ducing good building stone. A gray stone occurs about 12 or 14 feet 
below the surface, and is probably underlaid by blue-stone, but as the 
gray is considered the best the lower courses have not been opened. 
Other quarries are located in the northeastern part of the town which 
extract material for building and quicklime. ‘The largest quarries are, 
however, operated on the Columbus and Toledo railroad, one mile north 
of Marion. The stone is considered very strong and durable. The 
average thickness of the rocks extracted is not more than 8 inches, 
although blocks 12 and even 15 inches thick are sometimes obtained. 
There is no difficulty in extracting blocks of any required dimensions in 
the bed for all ordinary purposes of construction. The stone is easily 
quarried, being lifted with bars and broken with sledges, no blasting 
operations being necessary except to make an opening in the floor of the 
quarry for deeper workings. 
