318 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 



and in some eases is undoubtedly an altered eruptive; in others there is 

 a possibility of its being a product of metamorphism of magnesian 

 sediments. The principal beds now known lie in the Appalachian 

 regions of the eastern United States, though others have recently been 

 found in California, and there is no reason for supposing that many 

 more may not exist in the Rocky Mountain regions. The beds, if such 

 they can be called, are not extensive as a rule, but occur in lenticular 

 masses of uncertain age intercalated with other magnesian and horn- 

 blendic or micaceous rocks frequently more or less admixed with ser- 

 pentine. The rock, like serpentine, is, as a rule, traversed by bad 

 seams and joints, and the opening of any new deposit is always 

 attended with more or less risk, as there is in many cases no guarantee 

 that sound blocks of sufficient size to be of value will ever be obtainable. 

 The following facts relative to the occurrence of soapstone in the 

 United States are taken mainly from a handbook by the writer on 

 Stones for Building and Decoration, issued by Messrs. Wiley & Co., 

 of New York. 



An extensive bed of fine quality soapstone was discovered as early as 

 1794 at Francestown, New Hampshire (Specimen No. 10774, U.S.N.M.). 

 This was worked as early as 1802, and up to 1867 some 5,500 tons had 

 been quarried and sold. In this latter year some 3,700 stoves were 

 manufactured by one company alone. The business has been conducted 

 on a large scale ever since, and the bed has been followed some 400 

 feet, the present opening being 40 feet wide 80 feet long and 80 feet 

 deep. Other beds, constituting a part of the same formation, occur in 

 Weare, Warner, Canterbury, and Richmond, in the same State, and all 

 of which have been operated to a greater or less extent. 



Fine beds of the stone also occur in the town of Orford, and an 

 important quarry was opened as early as 1855 in Haverhill, but it has 

 not been worked continuously. 



At least sixty beds of soapstone are stated to occur in Vermont, 

 mostly located along the east side of the Green Mountain range, and 

 extending nearly the entire length of the State. The rock occurs asso- 

 ciated with serpentine and hornblende, and the beds as a rule are not 

 continuous for any distance, but have a great thickness in comparison 

 with their length. It not infrequently happens that several isolated 

 outcrops occur on the same line of strata, sometimes several miles 

 apart, and in many cases alternating with beds of dolomitic limestone 

 that are scattered along with them. 



The sixty beds above mentioned occur mainly in the towns of Reads- 

 boro, Marlboro, New Fane, Windham (Specimen No. 26626, U.S.N.M.), 

 Townsend, Athens, Grafton, Andover, Chester (Specimen No. 53244, 

 U.S.N.M.), Cavendish, Baltimore. Ludlow, Plymouth, Bridgewater, 

 Thetford, Bethel, Rochester, Warren, Braintree, Waitsfield, Moretown, 

 Duxbury, Waterbury, Bolton, Stow, Cambridge, Waterville, Berk- 

 shire, Eden, Lowell, Belvidere, Johnson, Enosburg, Westfield, Rich- 



