Part I. Report of progress in 1869, by J. S. Newberry, chief geologist. Part II. Report of progress in the second district, by E. B. Andrews, assist. geologist. Part III. Report on geology of Montgomery County, by Edward Orton, assist. geologist.

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The stone quarried at Buena Vista and neighborhood is remarkable for
its durability and resistance under pressure, the ease with which it is
wrought for all architectural purposes, and for its uniform and beautiful
color-a delicate bluish drab, sometimes called "French drab." The
stone in the quarry is remarkably even-bedded, and is split out in blocks
of a very uniform size, averaging about 45 cubic feet each. These blocks
are sawed into slabs and pillars most economically. This stone is used
in Cincinnati for all the finer architecture, and it has no superior in the
country.
The top of the " city ledge " layer is covered with Spirophyton cauda
galli, and other species, and with innumerable stems and stalks of marine
plants. Occasionally the leaf of a Spirophyton extends down into the
stone, to the injury of its compactness and strength. These plants show
no carbonaceous structure. There is not even a black stain upon leaf or
stalk, so completely have the carbon and hydrogen of the ancient plants
escaped. This escape was doubtless due to the fact that the plants were
only imperfectly submerged. The opinion has been expressed that petroleum originated from marine vegetation. In the Waverly we have the
proof of a vast marine flora, but in no case do we find any oil traceable
to this source, nor the slightest tendency to bituminization in any of
these plants. What might have been the case had the fucoids been covered by clays or other impervious material, it is impossible to say. These
Waverly plants are accumulated in comparatively shallow water, probably
very near the surface, since we find on the under side of some of the sandstone layers casts of well-marked strive, such as might be made by the
movement of shore ice along a muddy bottom. So far as could be ascertained, the casts of ripple marks run at right angles to the direction of
the striae. This seemingly corroborates the supposition that ice causes
the strive. Mr. John Miller, superintendent of Mr. Mueller's quarries at
Buena Vista, thinks the strie lie in the direction of N. E. and S. W.,
while the ripple marks are from N. W. to S. E. These striae are remarkably uniform and parrallel. The mud was often planed down quite
smooth, and yet the tool-marks are ever discernible. Upon the mud,
thus prepared, the sandy layers were deposited. If the different layers
of the sandstone should generally be found to contain upon their under
surfaces these casts, we might perhaps infer from this the periodicity of
the winter ice, and the succeeding deposits of the sandy sediment brought
NOTE.-W. L. Caden & Bro. quarry and sell annually 150,000 cubic feet of this stone,
taken from the city ledge stratum. Much of this is prepared for use in their large
steam saw-mill. Mr. Mueller quarries about 200,000 feet, all, or nearly all, taken
from the city ledge seam. Mr. J. W. Adams also quarries the city ledge stone largely.
In addition to his own quarries, he rents those of Hon. W J. Flagg, on Lower Twin
creek, together with his railroad. It should be added, that Mr. Mueller has a fine railway to his quarries, on which he uses locomotives.