BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 391 



The Isle La Motte marble derives its name from Isle La Motte, in 

 Lake Champlain, where it occurs in considerable abundance. It also 

 occurs on several other islands in this lake and upon its banks in many 

 places. According to Professor Hitchcock* this was the first marble 

 worked in the State, quarries having been opened prior to the Revolu- 

 tionary war. The stone, which is largely used for flooring-tiles, is very 

 dark, almost black in color, and highly fossiliferous, having undergone 

 less metamorphism than the marble in the interior of the State. So far 

 as the author has observed its color and texture are such as to preclude 

 its obtaining a high rank for purely decorative purposes, but for floor- 

 tiling is much esteemed and very durable. Fossil shells of great beauty 

 are not uncommon, and, being snowy white in color, show up in strong 

 contrast to the dark paste in which they are embedded. 



Virginia. — The extensive area comprehended under the title of the 

 Valley of Virginia embraces "all the portion of the State having for 

 its eastern boundary the western slope of the Blue Ridge and its inflected 

 continuation, the Poplar Camp and Iron Mountains, and for its western, 

 the Little North and a portion of the Big North Mountain, with the 

 southern prolongation of the former, Caldwell and Brushy Mountains; 

 and near its southwestern termination the line of knobs forming the 

 extension of Walker's Mountain."! 



The central portion of the valley as thus outlined is underlaid largely 

 by limestones of Silurio-Cambrian age, which are in several places, ac- 

 cording to the authority above quoted, capable of yielding good mar- 

 bles. The special varieties mentioned are : (1) a dun- colored marble 

 met with near New Market and Woodstock, and on the opposite side of 

 the Massanattep Mountain in Page County ; (2) a mottled bluish mar- 

 ble to the west of New Market ; (3) a gray marble occurring some three- 

 fourths of a mile in a southeasterly direction from Buchanan, in Bote- 

 tourt County; (4) a white marble of exquisite color and fine grain 

 about 5 miles from Lexington, in Rockbridge County; (5) a red mar- 

 ble occurring only in the Cambrian formations lying among the mount- 

 ains in the more southwestern counties; and (G) a shaded marble found 

 in Rockingham County. This last is said to be compact, susceptible of 

 a beautiful polish, and of a yellowish gray and slate color. None of 

 the above have as yet received more than a local application. 



At Craigsville, in Augusta County, there occurs a gray, sometimes 

 pink-spotted encrinal limestone which acquires a good * polish, and 

 though in no way remarkable for its beauty is capable of extensive ap- 

 plication for furniture and interior decoration. The Archaean area to 

 the eastward of the Valley of Virginia also includes sundry areas of 

 workable marble. It is stated by Rogers t that "near the mouth of 

 the Tye River (in Nelson County) and the Rockfish, a true marble is 



* Op. cit., p. 776, 



t Rogers, Geol. of the Virginias, pp. 203, 204. 



J Op. cit., pp. 81-83. 



