AS 
TAB. CCXXITI. 
SILEX - steatites. 
Soapstone, or Soaprock Steaiite. 
SreaTITE, commonly called Soaprock, is found in Norway 
and China, as also at Portsoy in Scotland, and at the 
Lizard Point in Cornwall. It is found of a fine waxy white 
like white hard soap or Windsor soap, and feels so similar 
to the touch as naturally to assume that name. It is occa- 
sionally coloured yellow, often so as to resemble common 
yellow bee’s wax; it is also occasionally dendritically co- 
loured with Iron Ochre or Manganese, from light yellow, 
light gray, &c. to red or crimson, as figured. The whitest is 
of course preferred in Porcelain, for which it is often used. It 
is found of various degrees of hardness, from such as is easily 
scraped by the finger nail to such as can scarcely be scratched 
by a pin. It, however, hardens in the fire, according to 
the time of exposure, until it will scratch glass like Quartz ; 
the more transparent becomes opaque, and if polished 
before putting into the fire will retain the polish after 
heating. The coloured varieties are affected by heat ac- 
cording to what the colouring matter may be. I suspect 
that this may be the Hoa-che of the Chinese, which has 
superseded the Kaolin; but so far as I have seen they do 
not understand it so well, although the china made from 
it is said to be better in some respects, I believe it is better 
