Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/487

 LIMEKICK LIMESTONE 481 they can find something like a roof to cover them. The chief public edifices are the law courts, prisons, custom house, chamber of com- merce, exchange, linen hall, corn and butter markets, assembly rooms, barracks, and hospi- tals. There are 20 places of worship, of which 6, including a cathedral with remarkably fine bells, belong to the Episcopal church of Ire- land, and 9, including a cathedral completed in 1860, to the Eoman Catholics; a district lunatic asylum, Mount St. Vincent orphanage, and a model school. The streets in the new quarters are spacious and regular, and the ap- pearance of the town is very bustling and ani- mated. The manufactures include flax spin- ning and weaving, and lace making; corn mills, iron founderies, and a military clothing estab- lishment; besides distilleries, breweries, tan- neries, and slips for ship building. Limerick has an active foreign trade, being the chief port on the W. coast for the shipment of raw Thomond Bridge and King John's Castle, Limerick. produce. By the Grand canal and by railway it has ready communication with the most im- portant towns of Ireland, while its harbor is sufficiently capacious to receive a large amount of shipping, extending nearly a mile along the river, and has a breadth of 150 yards, with from 2 to 9 ft. of water at low tide and 19 ft. at spring tide. The line of quays extends about 1,600 yards, and there are also floating docks. The new graving dock, where vessels of 1,500 tons can be repaired, has been finished at a cost of 20,000. In 1872 there entered at the port 441 British vessels, tonnage 77,476, and 89 foreign vessels, tonnage 37,350 ; cleared, 206 British vessels, tonnage 35,600, and 42 foreign vessels, tonnage 17,906. The registered shipping of the port comprised 31 sailing ves- sels, tonnage 1,806, and 2 steamers, tonnage 385. Limerick surrendered to the parliamen- tarians under Ireton in 1651, after a gallant defence ; and it was the last place in Ireland which submitted to William III. in 1691. A treaty was signed here on the latter occasion guaranteeing to Roman Catholics certain re- ligious rights, and promising an amnesty to all who took the oath of allegiance. It is the headquarters of the S. W. military district. LIMESTONE, the generic name of all rocks which are principally composed of carbonate of calcium. It is more particularly applied to those which are not crystalline, and are not white like marble. Perfectly crystallized car- bonate of lime is calc spar or Iceland spar. When it is imperfectly crystallized and has a fine grain, whether pure white or veined, it is called marble. Limestones of all kinds are found in rocks of all geologic ages, but the more crystalline varieties occur with the more distinctly metamorphic rocks. Magnesian or dolomitic limestone is noticed in the articles CEMENTS, DOLOMITE, LIME, and MARBLE. There are limestones which are not magnesian, but whose fossils contain this substance ; thus an orthoceras in the Tren- ton limestone of Otta- wa, Canada, which is not magnesian, con- tained, according to T. Sterry Hunt, carbon- ate of lime 56*00, car- bonate of magnesia 37*80, carbonate of iron 5-95=99*75. When- ever limestones are not metamorphic, they bear traces of organic structure, and it is gen- erally believed that all limestones have been formed from shells and corals which have been triturated by the waves and afterward com- pacted together. They usually contain more or less impurities in the form of clay, sand, talc, or other mineral substances which have been incorporated with them during the process of trituration. Hydraulic limestone is described in CEMENTS, and oolitic and other limestones are treated under their appropriate heads. LIMESTONE. I. A K county of Alabama, bordering on Tennessee, bounded S. by the Tennessee river, and watered by Elk river and its branches and several creeks; area, 575 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 15,017, of whom 7,253 were colored. The surface is hilly, and the soil very productive. The rock is limestone, from which the county derives its name. The Memphis and Charleston and the Nashville and Decatur railroads pass through it. The chief produc- tions in 1870 were 24,010 bushels of wheat, 404,435 of Indian corn, 17,922 of Irish and 15,427 of sweet potatoes, 115,982 Ibs. of butter, and 7,319 bales of cotton. There were 2,213 horses, 1,479 mules and asses, 2,188 inilch cows,