With the sandstones were shown some ten-inch cubes of slate cut from the quarries of the H. H. Mathews Consolidated Slate Company, of Boston, which operates a number of quarries in Washington county. The slate belt covers an area of about 320 square miles, the larger part of which is in Washington county, N. Y., but which extends across the line into Rutland county, Vt. This is probably the richest slate region in the world. The beds are of great thickness, belonging to two distinct geologic formations. They are folded on one another in such a manner as to present the workable beds in long parallel ridges. On account of its great strength and easy working qualities new uses are constantly being found for slate. One of the most striking features of the slate exhibit was a mantel built of rough slabs of dark red slate showing the cross fracture to have a fine satiny texture. This was a copy of a mantel designed by Lord & Hewlet, of New York, and built in a Poultney, Vt., residence. The main slate exhibit consisted of a stand supporting a slated roof, one side of which was covered with unfading green slates one inch thick, such as were laid on Senator Clark's New York residence. The other side was covered with rough thick slabs of unfading red. The sides of the stand were covered with the regular trade slates in four sections--red, green, purple and variegated. The uses of slate for construction purposes were shown by slabs and panels on the upper part of the stand. CEMENT The cement exhibit was made by the Helderberg Cement Company, of Howes Cave. One side of the exhibit stand was devoted to Portland and the other to natural cements. Barrels and bags of finished cement formed the base of the structure on which were glass jars containing the rock in its stages of manufacture, with a series of photographs of the works and of buildings of cement. On account of the rapidly extending applications of cement a large section outside of the building was set aside for exhibits of the uses of cement, and the exhibit was designed mainly to show the manufacture, the materials used and the method of their treatment. GYPSUM Gypsum was shown by a fine series of specimens contributed by the United States Gypsum Company from their mines in western New York. This material, like cement, is rapidly being adapted for a variety of purposes, especially in the finish and ornamentation of buildings, and the exhibit, encased in one of the square plate glass museum cases with its cut and polished cubes of raw gypsum, selenite crystals, jars of stucco colors and examples of plaster casts, made a very attractive exhibit. In another case there was exhibited gypsum in various forms from other sources. SALT