30 or THE SIMPLE PRIMITIVE ROCKS—SERPENTINE, ETC. 
county furnishes examples. Quartz rock is reduced to powder, 
and used in the manufacture of glass, and in Lincoln it is pre¬ 
ferred to every other substance in the construction of their iron 
furnaces. It occurs about ten miles from Raleigh, on the road 
leading to Chapel Hill. In the Pilot, Sawra-town, and King’s 
IMountains, it prevails almost to the exclusion of every other 
substance. They have also the insulated appearance, and ten¬ 
dency to a'conical form, mentioned by Brande, as characteristic 
of mountains formed of this rock. 
Hornblende Schist, is a stratified rock, composed either of 
pure hornblende, or of hornblende and feldspar. It is the 
primitive greenstone of some Geologists. The hornblende it 
contains communicates to it a dark color, by which it is always 
characterized. It seldom contains any imbedded minerals. It 
has been met with about the falls of Neuse; an imperfect and ill 
defined variety occurs in the eastern part of Davidson county; it 
is also found amongst the western mountains, as around Jefferson 
in Ashe county, where it is associated with gneiss. 
Chlorite Schist, is constituted either of simple chlorite, or of 
chlorite and quartz, and is easily distinguished by its green color. 
It appears to underlie the sand of the low country, near its upper 
border, through the counties of Johnston and Cumberland, as it is 
found in the banks and beds of the Neuse at Smithfield, of the 
Cape Fear, above Averysboro’, and of Lower-Little-River, at the 
mills, formerly owned by Col. Benjamin Williams. It occurs 
also in Wake, Orange, and the western counties. 
Talcose Schist, differs from the last in containing talg, in¬ 
stead of chlorite. It is not a common rock, but is found in Ashe, 
in the Meat-camp settlement, where it contains oxydulous iron, 
and in the northern part of Wake, not far from the Neuse. There 
is a rock on the road leading from Raleigh to the University, at 
the distance of from six to nine miles from the city, which seems 
to hold an intermediate place between micaceous and talcose 
schist. It has an unctuous feel, indicating the presence of a quan¬ 
tity of magnesia, and at some points embraces beds and masses 
of plumbago. 
OF THE SIMPLE PRLMITIVE ROCKS—SERPENTINE, 
LIMESTONE, CLAY SLATE, Etc. 
18 . These require no description, other than what they have 
already received. Serpentine occurs almost exclusively amongst 
the primitive rocks, where it seldom forms very considerable 
masses. It abounds in imbedded minerals. It is found in the 
northern part of Wake, and in the counties west of the Blue- 
Ridge. Steatite and compact-feldspar, enter as members of both 
the primitive and transition strata, whilst limestone, quartz, and 
argillite or clay slate, under some of their forms, extend through 
