KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
ARCHEOLOGY. 
STEATITE QUARRIES AND UTENSILS. 
G. C. BROADHEAD. 
Dr. Charles Rau in Smithsonian Contribution, 1876, says that vessels con- 
sisting of hard kinds of stone occur rarely east of the Rocky Mountains. In the 
Atlantic and Middle States vessels of " potstone " (Steatite) have often been met 
with. They differ in quaHty of workmanship as well as shape. He figures a 
bowl-shaped vessel from Wyoming Territory, and says that by far the best have 
been found in the Californian Islands, some of them measuring over a foot in 
diameter, and nicely made and of very regular shape, as one from Los 
Pueblos, Santa Barbara Co., Cal. Dr. Rau also alludes to the Steatite tubes 
found in Tennessee, nicely polished and six inches in length. 
In Vol. VII Geological Survey W. of looth Meridian, Prof. F. W, Putnam 
and Dr. C. C. Abbott communicate much interesting matter concerning the finds 
in California. Plate VI has fifteen figures of steatite and serpentine vessels from 
Southern California. The specimens were chiefly obtained by Dr. Paul Schu- 
macher from the islands of Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina. Old Soapstone quar- 
ries have been found in Virginia, near Washington, near Providence, Rhode 
Island, and in New Jersey. 
A sketch on page 121 of Schumacher's Report in Vol, VII Geological Survey 
W, of 1 00th Meridian, shows the manner of quarrying out the steatite pot forms» 
It was worked around with a chisel of flint on slate and gradually loosened 
beneath, then smoothed and hollowed out. Steatite, Serpentine and sandstone 
have been chiefly used for making these vessels. Pages 117 to 124 inclusive 
in this volume are devoted to Dr. Paul Schumacher's Report. On the Island of 
Santa Catalini he discovered an ancient quarry of Steatite and Serpentine, the 
Steatite is usually of a greenish-gray color, sometimes showing hexagonal prisms 
in stellated groups, with pearly lustre and greasy touch. In some ledges it is 
more micaceous. At the quarries Dr. Schumacher found pots and fragments as 
well as tools and unfinished articles. Several quarries are named including one 
fifteeri feet in diameter and five feet deep. Dr. S. concluded from the numerous 
outcrops and remains of workings that he had found the main factory of the Ollas. 
of the Californian aborigines. 
This stone has been in use since the times of Theophrastus and Pliny. 
The stone of Siphus and Corno was hollowed in a lathe and formed into 
culinary vessels, was the variety of talcose rock called Potstone {Lapis Ollaris). 
These quarries were worked in ancient times. 
