are naturally found in the same places. The demand for steatite or soapstone or "freestone" has existed from earliest times, while talc has only within a short time been in demand, mainly as filling for paper. Soapstone is found in a greater number of places in this state than the talc variety, but is not worked, so far as I can discover, anywhere at present, except at Chester, Perkinsville and Weathersfield. The American Soapstone Finish Company work two quarries at Chester. The Union Soapstone Company have a quarry about three miles southwest of Chester and some seven hundred feet above it. These are, perhaps, the most largely worked soapstone quarries in the state. "The soapstone occurs in seams or lenses bounded by a gneissic rock; they dip sharply to the southeast and strike nearly north and south. The lenses of soapstone also pitch toward the south. A thin seam of actinolite often occurs above the soapstone, between it and the gneiss. The soapstone has been opened by means of two cuts, the north one being 100 feet long by 70 feet wide and about 60 feet deep. The south cut or pit is 50-60 feet long, about 30 deep and 60-70 wide. The openings follow the pitching and dipping of the soapstone under the gneiss and although they have penetrated under it for some distance there is no timber used to support the roof. The blocks as they are quarried are hoisted to the surface, culled and then hauled to Chester Depot to the company's mill near the railroad. Ten and twelve miles northwest, north, and northeast of Chester Depot soapstone deposits have been opened along a line running from Ludlow to Perkinsville." Joseph H. Pratt, Mineral Resources, 1906, 1362. The soapstone at Perkinsville occurs in very much the same way as that just mentioned at Chester. These quarries and the adjacent mill are carried on by the Vermont Soapstone Company. The total amount of talc and soapstone sold annually in this state is not large, a little more than $100,000, but apparently it is likely to be greater in the immediate future. It may be well to note that Perkinsville is a village in Weathersfield. ASBESTOS. Asbestos, like soapstone and talc, occurs in many localities in this state, but it is mined at present only at property of the Lowell Lumber and Asbestos Company on the east side of Belvidere mountain. This was formerly the property of M. E. Tucker and is mentioned as such in previous Reports. This company, of which Mr. Wm. G. Gallagher is President, is actively engaged in mining and preparing for market the asbestos obtained from the rock of the mountain. A full report on the mineralogical and chemical character of this rock, and of the geology of the surrounding region, was published in the Fourth Report of the Geologist by Prof. V. F. Marsters, and to that those interested in the subject are referred. The company above mentioned have several openings from which they take asbestos-bearing rock, and they have from these an overhead trolley by which the raw material is taken to crushers in the mill. This mill is 158 x 36 feet and several stories high. It is equipped with admirable machinery for crushing the rock and separating the fibrous portions. This separation is very effectively and ingeniously done by air blasts. Some of the machinery has been especially contrived for the purpose by Mr. E. B. Craven, the manager of the concern. Not only is the fiber thoroughly separated from the nonfibrous rock, but the different grades are also separated one from the others and carried each to its proper receptacle. The mill has at present a capacity for crushing fifty tons of rock per day and turning out about ten tons of separated fiber. The machinery now in place will when all in use increase the capacity of the mill threefold. Mr. Gallagher writes as follows as to the products of the mill: "After the four different grades of asbestos fiber are separated and deposited in their respective shoots, from the screenings of these there is remaining the pulverized fiber and rock which goes down over an aspirator and the remaining fiber is separated from the rock and this makes our number 5 material which is used for fireproof and sanitary flooring by being mixed with waterproof binder and applied in a plastic state. This when dry makes a hard and durable flooring, used quite extensively throughout Europe and only recently in this country. Our No. 6 material is the very fine pulverized fiber of nearly 2,000 mesh which is used in the manufacture of paints and for the insulation of wire. Our No. 7 material is composed of a part of the refuse fiber and the pulverized rock which, when mixed with other minerals, and a small quantity of coal tar, applied in a plastic state, makes one of the best roofing materials and is used extensively by a New York corporation. They guarantee a roof for twenty years, it being fireproof, waterproof and will not crack, dis integrate, nor require painting. The balance of the waste rock which is pulverized we shall use in the manufacture of insulators for electrical purposes at our own plant in the near future." I have recently visited this property and was greatly pleased to find that in the mines the asbestos, and especially the cross fiber, was increasing decidedly in both quality and quantity, as deeper portions of the ledge were reached so that there is much to encourage the company in their undertaking. Within a few days my attention has been called to a deposit of asbestos in the village of Mechanicsville. This appears to be like that on Belvidere Mountain, of the chrysotile variety, and while there has not as yet been work enough done to really show what there is yet, so far as can be inferred from as much as can be seen, there is promise of good fiber deeper down. That which now shows is some of it very good, but is mostly what is known as ship fiber, which is always less desirable than cross fiber. Speaking of these two sorts of fiber, Mr. J. S. Diller in Mineral Resources, 1907, page 1124, writes: "Asbestos fiber, aside from its variation in mineral composition and the rocks with which it is associated, has two modes of occurrence according to which it is designated as cross fiber and slip fiber. Cross fiber asbestos forms veins in which the fiber extends directly across the vein, perpendicular to the vein walls. It is often silky and of high grade, ranging in size from a fraction of an inch to three inches in length. On the other hand slip fiber occurs in slickenside fault planes, produced by the slipping of one portion of serpentine or amphibole rock along its contact with another portion, generally of the same rock. "The fibers produced as the result of the slipping lie in the slipping plane, hence the name. The mass of slip fiber in each plane may be a mere film to four or five inches in thickness, and varies in quality from long, smooth, flexible, tough fiber, excellent for textile purposes, to short, harsh, brittle fiber of small tensile strength. Cross fiber is generally, if not always, chrysotile. As far as yet known definitely, amphibole does not occur in distinct cross fiber veins. Cross fiber is for the most part of good quality, but the slip fiber, though often of chrysotile, varies greatly in its properties." METALS. The only metals produced in this state during the past year have been copper and a little silver, which latter was a sort of by product |