HOLMES] CONNECTICUT AVENUE QUARRIES 117 



site and of the articles collected by him. About that time visits to 

 the site were made by Dr Charles Ran, Professor O. T. Mason, Mr 

 F. H. Ciishiug, and others, and extensive collections of articles, mainly 

 from the surface of the ground, were made. Mention is made by Dr 

 Eeynoldsof excavations conducted by these gentlemen, but no definite 

 information on this point is on record. Mr Gushing informs me that 

 slight excavations were made on the southern hill. A j)aper published 

 by Mr Louis A. Kengla, formerly of Washington, gives considerable 

 additional matter, accomijauied by illustrations of fragments of vessels 

 obtained in the District of Columbia.' 



Site and Sukfack Indication's 



The mass of steatite exposed on this site, being firmer and tougher 

 than the gneisses with which it is associated, gave rise, as erosion pro- 

 gressed, to two very decided ])rominences, separated by a shari) ravine 

 cut by a small stream, tributary to Rock creek, known as Soapstone 

 creek. The natural exposures are (confined to the bed and the steeper 

 banks of the stream and to the crests of the hills, the latter rising in 

 somewhat conical form — the one on the southern side of the ravine to 

 about SO feet and the one on the northern side to fully 90 feet above 

 the stream. 



The northern hill has a rounded, oblong summit, in which the steatite 

 is exposed or approaches very near the surface for a length, nearly 

 north and south, of more than 100 feet and a width of 20 or 30 feet. 

 The rock seems to be bedded with the greatest length of the crest, and 

 consists of nearly vertical, more or less massive layers of steatite. The 

 slopes of the hill are covered with deposits of disintegrated gneiss and 

 vegetal mold, and conse(iuently the gneiss with which the steatite is 

 surrounded and interbedded is in no place visible. The whole site is 

 thickly covered with forest trees and underbrush. 



In 1S91 the extension of Connecticut avenue led to the removal of 

 the lower portions of both hills, as indicated in the sketch map a, plate 

 Lxxxiii, the cut in the southern hill exposing portions of the strata to a 

 depth of 00 feet, and obliterating a number of the ancient pits. The 

 steatite brought to light by the grading is, however, of very poor qual- 

 ity and unfit for commercial purposes, which is true also of the entire 

 deposit, as indicated by the cessation of recent quarrying operations 

 conducted by the Hunter brothers. A section of the two hills appears 

 in 0, plate Lxxxiii. 



The evidences of ancient pitting are confined chiefly to the summits 

 of the hills, but no one can say to what extent the exposures of soap- 

 stone in the sides of the ravine were worked. The southern bank of 

 the stream has recently been excavated to a considerable depth by the 

 Hunter brothers, and the original configuration is somewhat destroyed; 



' Archeology of the District of Columbia, Washington, 1883. 



