NEW OCCURKEXCES OF MOKAZITE IN NORTH 

 CAROLINA 



By Joseph Hyde Pratt 



In 1897 there was forwarded to the office of the North Car- 

 olina Geological Survey a package containing a sample of min- 

 eral for identification. No letter accompanied this package 

 and the only clue to the locality from which the mineral came 

 was the postmark, which was Mars Hill. The mineral was 

 turned over to the writer for examination and was found to 

 be monazite. There were a number of fairly well developed 

 crystals of unusual size ; but the majority of the pieces of mona- 

 zite did not show any crystal f acies but were pseudo-crystalline, 

 due to parting parallel to c and m. An attempt was made to 

 locate the sender of the specimens without success and although 

 many inquiries were made in and around Mars Hill, and the 

 vicinity had been visited a number of times, no clue to the oc- 

 currence of this monazite was obtained until in the fall of 

 1908 when another specimen of monazite was seen by the writer 

 while travelling in Madison County. A systematic search was 

 then begun for the mineral with the result that the occurrence 

 was definitely located. 



References have been made to the occurrence of monazite at 

 Mars Hill, Madison County, by F. A. Genth,* who states that 

 monazite occurs in "large cleavable masses sometimes from 3 to 

 4 inches across and of a yellowish brown color from Mars Hill, 

 Madison County." He does not, however, give any further 

 statement regarding locality. In Dana's Mineralogyf it is 

 stated that monazite occurs "in considerable quantities in Madi- 

 son County, North Carolina, yielding angular fragments due 

 to parting." Judging from these brief notices of monazite in 

 Madison County, it is very probable that the specimens of mona- 

 zite found at that time were picked up on top of the ground by 

 some of the farmers in the vicinity of Mars Hill and no record 

 was kept as to where they were actually obtained. 



* Bull. 74 U. S. Geological Survey, 1891, p. 77. 

 t 6th ed., 1892, p. 752. 



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