during his inspection of the field many of the banks were in active operation, supplying ore to the Lewistown furnaces and perhaps to the outside trade.
As before mentioned, the Phillips mine was the only active one during 1888 and it was found practically impossible to enter many of the old openings which had been abandoned and allowed to fall shut.
Limestone quarries.
The Lewistown limestone beds have not been developed to any extent in this township, although they make three distinct bands outcropping in an east and west direction through the center of the township; one along the south flank of the southern Oriskany synclinal ridge, and the other two upon either side of the northern synclinal ridge.
Col. Wm. Willis’ limestone quarry is situated about a half mile west of Lewistown and a short distance north of the pike near the base of the ridge, and is opened in the middle member of the limestone formation. About 600 to 800 bushels per month are quarried here for building and fertilizing purposes. The land is leased by Mr. W. Lash and the quarry is opened just near the crown of a small anticlinal roll, which is beautifully preserved in the lower part of the quarry and may have some connection with the Chestnut ridge axis, which, 3 miles further west, elevates the Ore sandstone to the surface, as already explained. At the quarry the limestone dips are N. 35° W.. 50°–55° and S. 35° E. 30°; but above the crown of the arch there is an irregular wedge-shaped mass of limestone, as if the arch had been broken and squeezed together, and which has somewhat retarded the development of the quarry. The beds beneath this wedge are much more regularly arched. When seen during May, 1888, none of the stone exposed at this quarry seemed to be of first-class quality. The top stone was ribby, somewhat siliceous, and about 40′ thick, beneath which there was some 20′ of more massive beds which the quarrymen called “cement beds” and which after being burned furnished a lime which does not swell nor set well. The bottom layers along the arch
