Minerals in Talcose Slate 



363 



InZoar and Marlborough, and also in connection with the serpentine 

 in Newport, R. I. the columnar variety, called miasite, occurs. In 

 Marlborough and Newfane, Vt. are found also those insulated rhom- 

 bohedral crystals, which Mr. Brooke describes as a new species, un- 

 der the name of carbonate of magnesia and iron. In the rhomb spar 

 of Middlefield, sometimes occur tremolite and hepatic sulphuret of 

 iron. The ligniform and compact varieties of asbestus are found in 

 the same steatite bed. They exist also in Zoar, where they are as- 

 sociated with the new mineral picrosmine. At the soapstone quarry 

 in the east part of Windsor, has been found a small quantity of chro- 

 mate of iron of good quality. Sulphuret of molybdenum is said also 

 to have been found in the Middlefield steatite ; and the variety of 

 talc called nacrite, occurs half a mile west of the meeting house in 

 that town. 



No mineral is more common at these steatite beds than actynolite. 

 It is in bladed crystals, long and slender, yet generally very distinct, 

 being mostly six-sided. It is found at Middlefield, Windsor, Zoar, 

 &c. But the finest specimens come from Blanford, Mass. and New- 

 fane, Vt. At the former place it is sometimes in radiated masses. 



It has been already stated that imperfect crystals of hornblende are 

 sometimes disseminated in one variety of talcose slate. The finely 

 fibrous hornblende I have also found in quartz belonging to this same 

 rock. But the most remarkable variety of this mineral is the fasci- 

 ular variety. The laminae, sometimes three or four inches long, 

 and generally more or less curved, are disposed perpendicularly to 

 the layers of the slate, so that their edges appear on the surface. 

 When that surface is light colored, as in Nos. 864, 865, the distinct- 

 ness and regularity of the fascicular and scopiform groups of horn- 

 blende are very striking. I am disposed to believe this to be a variety 

 of hornblende not described : and certainly if it deserves a distinct 

 name, none can be mere appropriate than fasciculite, under which I 

 long ago described it in the American Journal of Science. 



The chlorite slate abounds, throughout its whole extent, with dis- 

 tinct crystals of octahedral iron ore. They exist also in the common 

 talcose slate, but not so frequently. The chlorite slate in Windsor, 

 also, near the most eastern soapstone quarry, contains numerous crys- 

 tals of the red oxide of titanium, imbedded in the feldspar, or rather 

 in graphic granite, which frequently occupies the seams of the slate, 

 or forms small irregular masses in it. But although the specimens 

 are fine, it is with extreme difficulty that they can be obtained. It is 



