Kotice of Crystallized Steatite, ^c. 249 



Art. Y].-^Mtice of Crystallized Steatite — Ores of Iron and . 

 Manganese, ^c. 6?/ Professor Chester Dewey. 



1. Crystallized Steatite. 



I HAVE lately visited the locality of this mineral. It \^ 

 found in that great bed of serpentine in Middlefield, county 

 of Hampshire. The rocks about it are all primitive. The 

 crystals of steatite have yet been found only in one place, 

 between two layers of serpentine. The serpentine occurs 

 in immense masses, overlaying each other in strata or blocks 

 separated by seams. Between two of these layers of ser- 

 pentine is steatite two or three inches thick, the upper sur- 

 face of which is covered with those crystals. The crystals 

 are however separated from the superabundant mass of 

 serpentine by a thin layer of asbestus. The asbestus is 

 pressed down entirely close upon the crystals, and, if it be 

 carefully removed from them, shows the form of the heads 

 of the crystals. We have only to see the position of the 

 crystals of steatite to be satisfied that they cannot he pseudo- 

 morphous. This is a strong reason, additional to those given, 

 page 275, Vol. IV. of this Journal, in support of the opin- 

 ion that they are true crystals. There is occasionally 

 found among these crystals, a crystal of oxyd of iron, cov- 

 ered over with the steatite, but of a form entirely different 

 from the crystals of steatite. The appearance of the whole 

 is that when the crystals were formed, the entire mass was 

 in a soft and yielding state. The crystals, which were 

 easy to obtain, have already been removed, and, to obtain 

 more, it will be necessary to remove, in part, the nnass of 

 serpentine above them. It is possible that analysis may 

 prove these crystals not to be steatite. That they belong 

 to the steatite family, there can be no doubt ; and the gen- 

 ral characters direct to the opinion that they are only a rare 

 and interesting variety of steatite. 



2. Ores of Iron and Manganese in Bennington, Vt. 



The principal bed of the ore lies three miles east of the 

 village of Bennington, very near the furnace at which it is 

 wrought. The ore of manganese is found at the same bed, 

 hni entirely separate from the iron ore. The location o-f 



