PINE MOUNTAIN

June 10, 1863 Issue of the WEEKLY STANDARD (Raleigh, North Carolina)
   Transcribed and Posted by Myrtle Bridges February 28, 2003


A correspondent of the Atlanta Confederacy has been made happy by a hat made of pine leaves by 
a fair daughter of North Carolina. He gives the following description of Pine Mountain, on which grew the tree 
that furnished the leaves for his hat:
	"The Pine Mountain is in Montgomery County, North Carolina, near the Pee Dee river, about three hundred feet 
high, covered exclusively with the long leaf pine, and is composed principally of quartzite, alternating with 
irgillaceous slate, conglomerate and occasional beds phorphyry, susceptible of a fine polish. Here you also find 
a layer of Novaculite, or what is commonly called Turkish hone stone; and on the Southern extremity you find 
agalmatolite or figure stone, which is used so extensively in China and other Asiatic nations in making idols, 
temples, and other works of art. It is a very rare mineral and very beautiful; as used now in Europe and the 
North as cosmetic, and, before the war, was ground and shipped from this belt in considerable quantities, for 
making fine toilet soaps. It is retentive of odors, and absorbs grease, and hence become an important ingredient 
in their manufacture. It is here called soapstone, but it has no magnesia in its composition; whereas, soapstone 
has 83 percent of that mineral, besides all its other constituents."

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