BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 367 



in the State is found in the towns of Gonverneur, Fowler, aud Edwards, 

 in St. Lawrence County. The rock is said to be massive and sound, 

 and remarkably free from the checks and flaws usually so profusely 

 developed in rocks of this class. In Pitcairu, in the same county, there 

 is also a fine deposit of serpentine of the variety commonly called 

 precious. The calcareous spar is white or grayish-white, and forms a 

 handsome background for the translucent serpentine. The quality of 

 the rock is said to be excellent and free from natural flaws and fissures. 

 Serpentine also forms the main range of hills on Staten Island, and 

 extends from New Brighton to a little west of Kichmond, a distance of 

 8 miles. The rock assumes a variety of colors, from almost black to 

 nearly white. 



North Carolina. — The massive varieties of serpentine are found in 

 many localities. The best appears to come from the neighborhood of 

 Patterson, Caldwell County. It has a dark, greenish-black color, and 

 contains fine veins of the yellowish-green fibrous and silky chrysotile, 

 and admits of a fine polish ; greenish-gray massive serpentine, also with 

 seams of greenish and grayish white chrysotile is found at the Baker 

 mine in Caldwell County, at which place are also found the varieties 

 marmolite and picrolite ; this last also occurs abundantly in the Buck 

 Creek corundum mine, Clay County. Dark green serpentine has been 

 observed in the neighborhood of Asheville, in Buncombe County, in 

 Forsythe and Wake Counties. A grayish or yellowish green serpen- 

 tine occurs in Caldwell, Wilkes, Surry, Yancey, Stokes, Orange, and 

 Wake Counties, in the chrysolite beds of Macon, Jackson, Yancey, 

 Mitchell, Watauga, Burke, and other counties. It results from the de- 

 composition of the chrysolite.* 



The writer has seen but a single sample of these rocks, aud hence 

 can express no opinion regardiug their value. 



Pennsylvania. — Serpentine, suitable for general building purposes, 

 occurs in large quantities in the extreme southwestern portion of Chester 

 County, near the Maryland line. There is also another large tract in 

 the eastern part of the county and several smaller ones in the south- 

 eastern part, intervening between the two already mentioned. Quite 

 similar tracts occur in the central part of Delaware County to the east 

 of Chester, in the extreme southern portion of Lancaster County on the 

 west, and in the southeastern part of Montgomery County, one of the 

 largest of which is passed through by the Philadelphia and Eeading 

 Railroad near Mechanicsville. These serpentines are nearly altogether 

 of a porous nature, light grayish-green in color and eminently adapted 

 for purposes of general construction. As a rule they acquire a very 

 dull and poor polish and are unfitted for the finer grades of ornamental 

 work. In every particular they correspond closely with the serpentine 

 of the Bare Hills, Maryland, already described. The quarries at the 

 present time most extensively worked are located on what are known as 

 *Geology of North Carolina, 1881, p. 57. 



