478 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 9 



of James River. The site was visited at that time and proved to be 

 of interest : ^ 



Here great masses of soapstone, outcropping on the surface, follow the general 

 direction from southwest to northeast and have a dip of about 60° to the south- 

 east. The area is heavily timbered, the surface very irregular and broken, 

 with one or more springs nearby. For a distance of nearly a thousand feet 

 along the ridge it is possible to trace pits dug by the Indians, generations ago, 

 when getting soapstone. More than 20 such excavations were discovered, the 

 majority being within the northern half of the distance, and becoming less clearly 

 defined southward. They vary in diameter from 10 to 30 feet and at present are 

 from 2 to 4 feet in depth, some are distinctly separated while others merge and 

 may in reality be parts of a greater excavation. The surface surrounding the 

 pits is covered with pieces of stone which had evidently been rejected and thrown 

 from the quarries, but now all is covered with thick vegetal mold, the spaces 

 between the pieces are filled, and very little of the stone is visible between the 

 mold and moss. The ancient pits are similarly covered and consequently it was 

 not possible to ascertain the actual extent of the quarries. 



v.. •_ 



V. 



Figure 2. — Virginia. Part of a vessel from' the quarry near Bedford, restored to show 

 probable shape if it had not been broken. U. S. N. M. No. 379261. 



Depressions at the Indian quarry are shown in plate 3. 



Typical examples of the broken and partly made vessels were col- 

 lected and are now in the National Museum. One unusually complete 

 specimen is illustrated in plate 5, figure 3. Several crude quartzite 

 implements that had been used in shaping the blocks of stone were 

 encountered near the pits. 



Some years ago a very large quarry was operated a few miles north 

 of those now being worked near Schuyler and Damon, but it was later 

 abandoned. The excavations appear larger than any of the more 

 recent quarries, and when they were last visited by the writer, huge 

 blocks of stone weighing several tons each, were piled on the surface 

 nearby, covered with vines and lichens, and suggested an ancient 



'' Bushnell, David I., Jr., Ancient soapstone quarry in Albemarle County, Virginia. 

 Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 16, No. 19, pp. 525-528, Nov. 18, 1926. 



