638 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
grained, quite even in color, and of great strength. Itis very compact, 
highly fossiliferous, of light gray color, and has thus far shown no ill 
effects from exposure to the weather. The Muskingum County court- 
house, at Zanesville, one of the finest in the state, is built from this 
stone, and it has also been much used for caps, sills, columns, etc., and 
although the production at present is small, it may at any time be in- 
creased with a demand for the material ; but at the present time most of 
the product is burned. A thickness of about 10 feet of stone is quarried, 
that being the depth to which natural drainage extends. Several feet 
more of the best of the stone he below this level, and the thickness of 
the layers increases with the depth; upon the top there are only very 
thin beds, while at a depth of 10 feet the beds are 16 or 18 inches in 
thickness. ‘The material is nearly pure carbonate of lime, containing 
only traces of iron and magnesia. In its microscopic structure it ap- 
pears to be quite highly fossiliferous and very compact, containing only 
small traces of iron pyrites, the oxidation of which imparts the faint 
yellow color which the stone generally possesses. 
CARBONIFEROUS.—A quarter of a mile southwest of Zanesville, 
near the Muskingum river, a quarry has been opened in the limestone 
of the Lower Coal Measures, from which some material has been ex- 
tracted which has been used chiefly for caps, sills, and top courses of 
foundations. The'main product of this quarry is burned into lime. > It 
is not used for the ruder purposes of construction, as it is too expensive. 
The ledge from which this stone is taken is a solid mass of a bluish color, 
and about 3 feet in thickness. The stripping which overlies the 3 feet 
of stone is 25 feet thick. The material is a compact, earthy limestone of 
a very dark color, containing considerable protoxide of iron and very 
little magnesia. It is very highly fossiliferous and difficult to work, and 
is called by the stone-cutters hard and plucky. 
The outcrops of this stone are found abundantly in the neighborhood 
of Zanesville, and the material is quite extensively used for macadamiz- 
ing streets. The national road for some distance west of Zanesville is 
constructed of it. | 
In the townships along the Muskingum the sandstone, which is 
situated below the coal, affords an excellent building stone and is ex- 
tensively quarried. ‘The Waverly sandstone also occurs in the western 
portion of the county. The limestones which also occur in the county 
are, upon the whole, of rather inferior quality for purposes of construc- 
