LOCALITIES. 



535 



FIG. 279. 



Duxbury, Waterbury, Bolton, Stow, Cambridge, Waterville, Berkshire, Eden, Lowell, Belvidere, Johnson, 

 Enosburgh, West field, Richford, Troy and Jay. 



There are at least twenty-five beds of serpentine in Vermont, and they are located in the following 

 towns : Dover, Newfane, Windham, Ludlow, Cavendish, Norwich, Boxbury, Warren, Waitsfield, 

 Moretown, Middlesex, Waterbury, Northfield, Hazen's Notch in Westfield, Waterville, Montgomery, 

 Richford, Lowell, Westfield, Troy and Jay. We will first describe the beds of steatite and then those of 



serpentine. 



BEDS OF STEATITE. 



Commencing at the southern part of the State and proceeding northward, there is said to be a bed of 

 steatite in the town of Readsboro. Our authority for the existence of this bed is Dana's Mineralogy, fourth 

 edition, Part II, page 479. It is situated in gneiss ; and there are said to be very good specimens of glassy 

 actinolite associated with it. It is not very common to find beds of steatite in this belt of gneiss which 

 embraces the Green Mountains. Yet it is found in this formation, in Bolton and perhaps in Cambridge, 

 and especially in Zoar, Massachusetts, in mica schist, along the line of strike continued from Readsboro. 

 There are three beds of steatite in Marlboro. The most southern on the top of a hill in the west part of 

 the town, north of the Methodist Church, and is the property of Hosea Ballou. The talcose 

 schist has a strike of N. 20 E., and dips about 50 easterly. It is represented in Fig. 279. 

 A, A, in the figure represents that part of the bed which is entirely serpentine ; the steatite 

 is at B and C ; and at D is an opening made by quarrymen at its southern end. At this 

 end the bed is fifty feet wide. The southern extremity of the steatite is concealed by allu- 

 vium. There are no indications of steatite or serpentine north of the representation. The 

 total length of the bed was estimated at twenty-five rods. The steatite is of the first qual- 

 ity, being free from the brown spar which injures so much of the steatite in the slates. As 

 the bed is upon the top of a hill, it is admirably situated for drainage. 



Half a mile north of this bed there is another upon the land of Ward Belus. In the bed 

 of a brook there are two small beds of steatite, having the same inclination and direction 

 with that of Ballou's. Each bed is about fifteen feet wide, and they con- pw> 

 verge towards each other, probably uniting upon the north side of the 

 brook beneath the ground. The rock between the beds is tough hornblende 

 schist. About four rods of the eastern bed are exposed to view, and about 

 half as much of the western. The distance between these beds at their 

 southern expanse is seventy feet ; at their northern, forty feet. The steatite 

 appearing to view was entirely filled with brown spar. Perhaps if the soil 

 was removed from the concealed portions of the steatite, a better quality 

 might be found. The soil might easily be removed by the stream. There is a good quality 

 of actinolite at the northern part of the exposure. Another bed of steatite in Marlboro 

 is on the line of strike of these two beds in the north part of the town, in talcose schist, 

 upon the land of Clark Worden. It is represented in Fig. 280. The parallel lines upon 

 the side of the bed represent strata of talcose schist, running N. 10 E., and dipping 50 E. 

 At A the steatite is green and rather hard, being a rock intermediate between steatite and 

 chlorite schist. B is entirely composed of the best quality of steatite, free from brown spar. 

 At C, C, the steatite has been quarried. The bed is situated upon the top of a gentle hill, 

 and both extremities are concealed by alluvium. The length of the exposure is twenty 

 rods, and its width is four rods. At the south end of B there is a considerable amount of 

 brown spar. The north end of B is the purest and whitest. The eastern projection of B 

 into the adjoining schist is composed of an inferior quality of steatite, the poorest of any 

 part of the bed. 



Passing over an immense bed of serpentine, we are brought, in the west part of Newfane, 

 to a bed of both steatite and serpentine, which is worked by the Vermont Marble and Soapstone Company. 

 The bed is situated upon a hill in the northwest part of the town, 1398 feet above the Connecticut River at 



Worden's Bed. 



