SQENTIFIC SURVEY. ' ggi 



no- 



of some of these axial lines in Penobscot county have been 

 ticed already in this report. Few geoloj^ists in their surveys 

 have carefully traced out such axial lines. Sir W. E. Logan, how- 

 ever, has done so in Canada East; and these strictly scientific 

 results have, proved to be of the utmost importance to those miners 

 who have recently been exploring that remarkable metaliferous 

 country for cupriferous veins. It would not be more strange to 

 find as important mines in this mica schist region in Maine, than 

 it was in Canada half a dozen years since. 



These axial lines may be indicated often, in the absence of 

 more definite marks, by the repetition of the same bands of some 

 peculiar rock, as limestone, quartz rock, or schists more or less ar- 

 gillaceous. Between Skowhegan and Shirley we should look for 

 these indications in the form of schistose bands, charged with a 

 greater or less amount of argillaceous matter. 



Between Shirley and the edge of Brighton we consider the rock 

 to belong to the clay slate formation, with possibly a mass of gran- 

 ite oozing out on the top of Russell mountain. Three axes have 

 been noticed in crossing the strata on this line. At Shirley Hotel 

 the dip is north-west, but two miles beyond on the Blanchard road, 

 the dip is to the south-east. There is an anticlinal here then. In 

 the deep valley of Blanchard the slate takes a little mica into its 

 composition. At C. S. Whitehouse's estate, on the southern slope 

 of Russell mountain, the dip changes to the north-west again, and 

 the rock consists of alternate beds of clay slate and mica schist. 

 Unless this great mountain is made up of granite, as one would 

 think after seeing the summit rocks glisten in the sun at a great 

 distance, it must be a synclinal pile of strata. 



An excellent clay slate formation occupies the greater part of 

 Kingsbury, and in it there appear to be one or two axes, probably 

 an anticlinal, and then a synclinal axis. In the north-west part of 

 the town there is a very fine view of the country towards the cast 

 and south-east, in Penobscot county. The fact that the rocks 

 between Shirley and the north edge of Kingsbury are somewhat 

 micaceous, while there are variations in the strata, suggests the 

 inquiry whether the strata in Shirley and Blanchard are not a rep- 

 etition of the older schistose strata. It is much easier from a 

 cursory survey to raise questions than to answer them. 



A fine anticlinal axis is displayed as we pass into Brighton, be- 

 ing upon the edge of the mica schist group. In this town the 



