Descriptive Catalogue of Rocks and Minerals. 263 



and in the condition in which they are employed by the 

 joiners of this country, who prefer them to the finest oil- 

 stones of the market. No. 61 is from a large mass which 

 has been used as an oil-stone by a neighbouring joiner for 

 several years. Having become very smooth by use, it pos- 

 sesses a considerable degree of beauty, presenting a clear 

 ground of olive green, clouded and veined like certain val- 

 ued marbles. The place where Nos. 60 and 61 were ob- 

 tained, is seven miles directly west of this village. The 

 slate appears in three sloping parallel ridges, extending 

 north and south to an unknown distance. No. 62 was ob- 

 tained eighteen miles south of the place which afforded Nos. 

 60 and 61, but in the same range on the south side of Haw 

 River. It is used there for whetstones, but is suited to 

 coarser instruments than Nos. 60 and 61, and is used with 

 water. It is also employed for grind-stones, for which 

 purpose it is said to be admirable. No. 63 is a coarse 

 specimen of the same. No. 64 another kind used with wa- 

 ter. 



65 and 66. Slates contiguous to the Novaculite. This 

 county (Orange) is distinguished for Slate, containing, be- 

 side those just mentioned, a great variety of Argillite, 

 Clorite, and Greenstone Slates. Some of the argillites 

 near Hillsborough appear to be of the kind called ^/?im 

 Slate ; and the great quantities of pyrites disseminated 

 through many others, indicate materials for Alum and Cop- 

 peras. 



67. Fi7ie Clay from a bed in Rowan County. 



68. Petrosilex, near the Novaculite, six miles west of 

 this village, forming a ridge parallel to that. When first 

 taken from the ground, it may be scratched with a knife, 

 and polished without difficulty ; but it hardens on drying. 

 When polished, the shining black ground, variegated with 

 white specks, renders it quite ornamental. It is extreme- 

 ly abundant, appearing likewise at numerous places in the 

 beds of Haw and Rocky Rivers, (branches of the Cape 

 Fear) and composing a magnificent structure at the Falls of 

 the Yadkin, in the County of Montgomery. 



69. The same, from th6 Falls mentioned in 68. 



70. Tourmalin crystallized in mass, from Stokes — com- 

 mon in the upper parts of Virginia. 



71. Plumbago o( Wake — ^best quality slaty. 



