540 



STEATITE. 



quarry In the middle is fifteen feet deep. The bed is upon the land of Peleg Marsh, and is immediately 

 contiguous to the Vermont Central Railroad. 



In the westerly part of the town there is another bed of steatite. In the north part of Bethel there is a 

 bed of laminated talc, most of which is sufficiently compact to be quarried as steatite. 



Fio. 288. 



Williams' Steatite Bed, Rochester. 



In the east part of Kochester, near the Bethel line, there are three different beds of steatite within the 

 space of one mile. The principal ones are represented by Mr. Hager in Fig. 288. We add a description 

 of these beds from the notes of the Principal of the Survey : 



" Visited the serpentine bed and soapstone quarry two miles east of Rochester Center. The former forms 

 an embossed hill, one hundred rods north of the soapstone. A great irregular mass of chlorite occurs at 

 the top, full of crystals of magnetic iron ore. Asbestus (?) also occurs here in an adit about fifty feet long 

 that has been driven into the hill. Also a fine white mineral (agalmatolite ?), seeming to form a coating 

 on the serpentine. 



" The soapstone forms several beds in a talco-micaceous rock, dipping at a high angle to the west. For 

 several feet at the top the rock it abounds in veins of brown spar and fissures. But beneath this a very 

 beautiful soapstone is found, entirely free from foreign minerals. The quantity of soapstone here is very 

 great, and I should think the prospects very good ; but the road is steep (most of the way descending) to 

 the depot at Bethel, nine or ten miles. 



" In the village of Bethel an enormous mass of greenish talc is found, coarse-grained and laminated, 

 which has been wrought for soapstone, and though rather hard, I cannot see why it will not make good 

 stone ; though unlike any other I have seen. The rock appears to be stratified. Some of the rock at 

 Rochester is of a light-green color and pure." 



The serpentine represented in Fig. 288 is different from that described in these notes as being removed 

 100 rods from the steatite. The three beds of steatite are here represented, the most remote being forty- 

 five rods apart. The largest bed in Rochester is reported to be nearly forty feet wide. The lines on the 

 left hand side of Fig. 288 represent the position of the adit. 



In Thompson's Gazetteer of Vermont it is stated that " steatite or soapstone is found in considerable 

 quantities in the north part of Stockbridge, but it is of a quality inferior to that found in Bethel, Bridge- 

 water and several other places in the State." 



Prof. Adams reports the existence of a bed of steatite in Braintree in talcose schist, in a line with the 

 steatite of Bethel and the Verd-antique serpentine of Roxbury and Northfield. 



There are three beds of steatite in Warren. One is near the principal village, and another four feet wide 

 near the River village in the south part of the town. Both of these beds are comparatively insignificant. 



