fusely distributed through the
limestone in the lower or main quarry in veins and pockets. It is
generally soft, translucent, and to be found in masses from a pea to a
cubic foot in size. Much of it is of a pure oil green color, rich and
translucent, making a very fine and attractive looking mineral specimen.
No difficulty need be experienced in producing all the varieties of this
mineral, as much has been removed and may be found in the vicinity of
the quarry, as it is always carefully separated from the limestone as
being useless, and thrown aside, or in some instances, when of peculiar
beauty, sold as specimens. The variety of serpentine known as marmolite,
which is made up of numberless plates of the mineral packed together
similar to mica, but of the green color of the serpentine picolite, or
fibrous serpentine, also frequently occurs of a light grass green color,
and is a very interesting variety.

In selecting specimens of serpentine, care should be taken to procure
that which is the most translucent, and that holding miniature veins of
asbestos. These are not so plentiful as those of the pure serpentine
alone, but occur in the southern end of the main quarry. The width of
these veins of asbestos is seldom over an inch, but those of even much
less are highly prized as specimens. These veins of asbestos are, in
places, several inches in length, but are generally much broken in
removing them, as their fibrous structure, at right angles to their
length, makes them very fragile, and pure specimens of asbestos can
seldom be found. However, they make much finer specimens when with the
serpentine. Frequently these specimens may be obtained with a layer of
gurhofite above them, and separated by the serpentine; this assortment
is very interesting, revealing to us the manner in which they were
formed, which was by a process termed segregation.

This gurhofite, called bone
by the quarrymen, occurs in white, dense looking masses, intermingled
with the serpentine, especially in the upper end of the quarry, where
veins six and eight inches in thickness are abundant, and from which
specimens may be readily obtained showing the fibrous structure of the
gurhofite and the association with the serpentine, to which it is found
attached; it is quite different from the limestone in appearance, and
need not be mistaken for it.

_Phlozopite_.--In a vein near the lower end of the quarry, near the
asbestos locality, occurs large plates