BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 385 



of the Chilhowee Mountain, occur breccia marbles of exceptioual beauty, 

 of pink and olive-green colors. One quite unique stone from this local- 

 ity is composed of a grayish-ground mass, with large rounded and angu- 

 lar fragments of a lemon-yellow color. These same marbles also occur 

 in Greene, Cocke, Sevier, and all the counties of the Unaka range, but 

 they are not much worked, on account of the hardness of the included 

 fragments.* 



Dove-colored marbles are stated by the same authority to occur a few 

 . miles south of Manchester, Coffee County, and in Wilson and Davidson 

 Counties. Dark limestones, almost black when polished, and often 

 traversed by veins of calcite, forming a good black marble, are not un- 

 common, occurring in the vicinity of Jonesborongh, Washington County, 

 Greeneville and Newport, Cocke County, on the Pigeons, in Sevier 

 County, and also in McMinn and Polk Counties. They are at present 

 but little used. 



Colored marbles are also said to occur f in the Western Tennessee 

 Valley, which, though somewhat inferior in point of beauty to those of 

 the East Valley, are still valuable stones. Perry, Decatur, Wayne, and 

 1 1 ardin Counties are mentioned as offering the best facilities. On Shoal 

 Creek, in Lawrence County, are said to be beds of fawn-colored or 

 brownish -red marbles, some 40 feet in thickness and extending on both 

 sides of the creek for a distance of 15 miles. The stone is often varie- 

 gated by fleecy clouds of green or red green and white colors. Owing 

 to lack of transportation facilities it is not now in the market. In Wil- 

 son and Davidson Counties other beds of bluish or dove-colored marble 

 occur, and in Rutherford County is a bed of pale-yellow marble with 

 .serpentine veins of red and black dots. The extent of the deposit is 

 not known, aud at present the stone is seen only in the form of small 

 objects for paper-weights and curiosities. 



Texas, — The resources of this State are as yet but little known. 

 There have been received at the National Museum several samples of 

 compact, light-colored cretaceous limestones, from the vicinit3 r ot Austin, 

 Travis County, though few of them are of such quality as to be used 

 as marbles. There was on exhibition at the New Orleans Exposition 

 in 1884-85 a marble fire-place and mantel of Austin marble that was 

 worthy of more than passing notice. The stone was compact, very light 

 drab in color, and interspersed with large fossil shells and transparent 

 calcite crystal. This composition would render some care necessary in 

 cutting, but the final result would seem to justify theoutlay. The marbles 

 received from Burnet and vicinity present a variety of colors, some of 

 which are very pleasing. They range from blue-gray and distinctly crys- 

 talline to very fine and compact forms, designated as " mahogany-red," 

 " red and white," " purple variegated," etc. The " mahogany-red" is dull 

 in color, and traversed by a net-work of lighter lines. It is too hard and 

 brittle to work economically. The most promising variety is the purple 



" Geology of Tennessee, p. 221. \ Mlu. Kesouroes of Tennessee. 



H. Mis. 170, pt. 2 25 



