TALC AND SOAPSTONE 425 



Talc is found very commonly throughout many of the 

 states, and in small quantities it is very widely distributed. 

 The steatite variety occurs more frequently in conmiercial 

 quantities, but it can be worked profita})ly only when it is 

 located most favorably with regard to transportation facil- 

 ities and in proximity to a market for the manufactured ar- 

 ticles. In a number of states this variety is (luarriod and used 

 for chimneys and fireplaces by the inhabitants of the di.strict 

 in which it occurs, but it is impossible to tell exactly how much 

 is used in this way. It has been roughly estimated that in 

 the mountains of North CaroUna from 25 to 50 short tons per 

 year are so used. 



Large deposits of foliated talc have thus far been found 

 only in North Carolina and New York, and in both cases they 

 are associated with limestone. Small amounts of tliis variety 

 of talc are found associated with the basic magnesian rocks 

 extending from Alabama to Canada, but in no case has it been 

 found in commercial quantit}'. Where, however, the pyrox- 

 enite variety of these basic magnesian rocks has been con- 

 verted into the secondary rock composed almost entirely of 

 the steatite variety of talc, it makes a deposit of conmiercial 

 value if favorably located, as mentioned above. Talc has 

 been mined in California, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, 

 New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, 

 Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Virginia. The California talc 

 product that was put on the market in 1902 was not talc, but 

 a variety of serpentine obtained from Santa Catalina island, 

 Los Angeles coimty. Recently, however, a de])osit of talc 

 w^as disco^'ered in Tulare county, near Lindsay, about 2| miles 

 east of the railroad, where it occurs in lenses of from 6 to 8 

 feet in width and 100 or more feet in length. 



The deposits of Georgia and North Carolina are some- 

 what similar in their occurrence, and are probably ])art of the 

 same belt, although the Georgia talc is more compact and not 

 so fine in quality. In Georgia the principal mining has been 

 done in Murray county. At least one half of the talc mined 

 in this state is put on the market in the form of ground talc. 



The deposits of North CaroUna are found in Swain and 

 Cherokee counties, and that portion of the belt in Swain county 



