Mineral Industries and Geology of Certain Areas - Vermont Agency ...

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REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. 8 The first marble quarry of R. F. Richardson was opened in the summer of 1894. It is situated three miles east of Washington village and one mile south of Dr. Warner's first quarry. 1-lere the strike of the rock is east and west and the dip 5 ° north. The first sheet is 4 feet thick and lies upon the surface. The second is 28 feet long and of unknown depth. Within five rods of this cuarry the rock lies perfectly horizontal with a strike clue west. About twenty-five rods towards the south is found the darkest, the most uniform in texture, and the most desirable marble of the whole formation. It is suscep- • tible of a higher polish than any other and its lettering is legible to a greater distance. A few rods to the north is found the purest limestone of the entire area. Its percentage of soluble constituents is greater than that of any other sample analyzed. These areas of untilted • strata, with planes of deposition coin'ciding with cleavage planes, may he seen in the right of Plate XII. Through the eastern part of Washington the lighter varieties If of the marble quite closely resemble the \Vaits River deposit. The former is a dark variety with light bands; the latter a light variety with dark hands. A close inspection of Plate XX reveals the large curves • in the strata in a hand specimen of the Washington marble with the other half of the block superimposed. The fragT ment in the left-hand corner shows the curved bands in the Waits River marble. Not infrequently a multiplicity of ovals can he seen on a single slab. These vary in size from a robin's so egg to 4 feet in diameter. It only redluires capital and good management to make for Washington a marble industry equal to that of Rutland. The strike of the limestone at Corinth Corners is north 20 ° west; clip 35 ° east. Here a slab 75 feet long, without a single seam, could easily he obtained. Withiti three miles the strike changes from north 40 0 east to east and west, and the clip from 35 0 east to 15 0 porth.
V :88 REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. V REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. Corn plession Tests. One locality plotted in the western part of Williamstown gave 4,900 feet. Rutland, white marble ........................... I 1,892 From this point the rock assumes a darker hue, a more shaly Italian . ...................................... ...... 12,150 ... texture, a more nearly vertical position, until it is intimately Rutland, Mountain dark......................... 12,833 interstratified with the slate, and ultimately the slate becomes Ne\v York. Tuckahoe ........................... 12,950 free from Washington limestone. Lee, Mass ............................................ 13 ,400 . . Limestone exposed to the action of the ever-active atmos- Rutland, blue .................................. 13,864 phere assumes peculiar shapes. These forms resemble both Kingston, . ................................. 13,900 animals and inanimate objects. They result partly from the Washington, Vt................................ 15,675 chemical decomposition of the water that settles upon them, The Washington marble is a crystalline limestone of finer and partly from erosion. When limestones are exposed at high grain, more compact in texture, greater specific gravity, and altitudes they are badly furrowed and crossed by deep washedcapable of being cut to a finer edge than any granite on the out channels. market. On the highly polished surface of the uniformly dark This result of disintegration, of imperceptible but effective varieties it takes a lettering legible at a greater distance than wearing away, is again due to the heavy summer rains, to the any known rock. I have personally compared it with more to deep winter snows, to the scorching of the sun which makes than 5,000 monuments in the east, central and western states. the rock brittle and the freezing which makes the rock crack The dark steel gray and bluish varieties, as well as the handed and split off from the main body of the mass. In fact, it is the and mottled varieties, hammer white, so that when cut into result of the constant exposure of the limestone to the everbases they form a striking contrast with the die upon which the changing action of the atmosphere. inscription is placed. The possibilities of erosion are beautifully illustrated at Old Ordinary marbles, largely carbonates of calcium and mag- City Falls in Strafford, where the water rushes with 30 feet nesium, soon become dull and corroded with vegetation and perpendicular descent over ledges of Washington limestone. traces of iron: but pieces cut from this marble seventy-five In the northwest corner of Corinth there is a very peculiar years ago simply for building stones are still lively and untarvariety of the intermediate member. It is best catalogued as nished. a calcareous quartzite. The rift is so perfect that a few taps No rock more stoutly resists decomposition and alteration with a sharp-edged tool will split off long slabs like wood. The by the action of the atmosphere than quartz, and the silicious uncovered sheets are over ioo feet in length with strike north 500 character of this marble makes it preeminently fitted for all west; dip north 400 east. It is well suited for flagging stone structural and ornamental purposes. or bridge construction. Its mean depth is between 5,000 and 6,000 feet, hence the Just outside the western band of the slate, the youngest of supply is inexhaustible. The thickness of the sheets eyery- these Lower Trenton series, there is in Roxbury, within 30 rods where increase as the quarries are opened. of the depot, a most beautiful serpentine marble, well adapted This formation has plotted in Washington 5,821 feet, Waits for all kinds of decorative and interior work. Although there River Chelsea 5,000, Tunbridge 4,680. It decreases are white veins of soft talc and bright green fibres of serpentine somewhat in depth towards the south and towards the west.
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Mineral Industries and Geology of Certain Areas - Vermont Agency ...

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