ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1906. 
and marble blocks could be transported in hulks or barges carrying 
several thousand tons at a low freight rate and the necessity of care- 
ful handling during shipment would be avoided. 
To determine the structural value of a building stone, microscop- 
ical, chemical, and physical tests should be made. This is more 
necessary for marbles and cement stone than for granite. Most 
university laboratories are equipped for such tests and will make 
them at a reasonable cost. 
MARBLE. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Beds of marble are known to occur at points along the mainland 
portion of southeastern Alaska, as well as on many of the islands. 
They are invariably at or near the contact of an intrusive belt of 
granodiorite, which has been one of the principal factors in meta- 
morphosing the original limestone beds to their present crystalline 
or marbleized condition. The age of the limestone beds is Paleo- 
zoic, and only in a few places could a more definite determination 
be made. The largest deposit of marble under development is on 
the northwest end of Prince of Wales Island, near Shakan. This 
and other deposits are described on pages 75-77. 
NECESSARY QUALITIES. 
Commercially marble includes all limestone rocks susceptible of 
receiving a good polish and suitable for ornamental work. It is no 
simple problem to judge the value of a marble deposit, and this can 
not be done from mere tests of small samples, which, nevertheless, may 
often give significant results. Some of the more important factors 
governing the value of a body of marble are the quality and sound- 
ness of the material as a whole, extent of the deposit, absence of 
fractures or joint planes, color, lack of objectionable impurities — such 
as silica, pyrite, and bitumen — facility of extraction, and location of 
the deposit relative to the market and transportation. 
COMPETITIVE DISTRICTS. 
Most of the marble used in western cities for monumental and 
interior decorative purposes is furnished by eastern dealers and 
must be shipped across the continent. This is mainly the product 
of the Vermont and Tennessee quarries or is imported from Italy. 
Stevens County is the only producing locality in the State of Wash- 
ington; there are none in Oregon, and but two of importance, the 
Inyo and Columbia quarries, in California. The total value of the 
marble production for 1905 from these localities was less than 
