191Jf^ Certain Mineral Resources 105 



ses whicli gives evidence of its formation through miagmatic 

 agencies. 



Associated with the Carolina and Roan gneisses of Madison 

 County, North Carolina, about 4 1-2 miles southwest of Mars 

 Hill, there is an unusual occurrence of monazite. 



The principal country rocks of this area are Carolina and 

 Roan gneiss and Cranberry granite. 



In this particular vicinity the Carolina gneiss occurs as out- 

 liers from the main fonnation and is not interbanded with the 

 Cranberry gTanite. Immediately to the east there is a large 

 mass of Roan gneiss and this is also observed farther to the 

 west. The Cranbeny granite as it occurs in this vicinity is 

 also in the fomi of outliers or apophyses from the main mass ly- 

 ing to the north and west. It is an igneous rock composed of 

 quartz and orthoclase and plagioclase feldspar with biotite, 

 muscovite, and, in places, hornblende as additional minerals. 

 There are a number of accessory minerals as magnetite, il- 

 menite, garnet and epidote, found in this granite. This granite 

 occasionally contains pegmatite areas and, on the ;Whiteoak 

 Creek, a great deal of the gneiss and granite was peg'matiz':'d. 



There are no extensive areas of rocks outcropping on this 

 hillside. Occasionally small boulders of the partially decom- 

 posed granite were observed containing more or less epidote 

 and ilmenite forming a sort of ledge running around a hill 

 about a third of the way to the top. About 100 feet up the hill- 

 side a shaft has been sunk to a depth of 45 feet. The rocks 

 were decomposed throughout this distance so that no blasting 

 whatever was necessary. On account of the excessive decom- 

 position of the rocks, it was difficult to determine what the rocks 

 at this particular point were. They had the appearance, how- 

 ever, of being decomposed Cranberry granite. The section 

 exposed by the shaft showed the rocks to be more or less peg- 

 matized and to carry monazite the whole depth of the shaft. 

 The monazite seemed to occur in the pegmatized band of the 

 rock which, in the shaft as exposed, had a width of 2 1-2 to 4 

 feet and does not occur in any sense in a vein formation. 



The monazite, which is of a clove brown color, was found 

 in fragments or rough crystals varying from pieces the size of 



