GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 75 



usually flattened more or less, and have a shrivelled ap- 

 pearance like dried fruit. They sometimes become so 

 thin as to consist of only a few plates of mica." A good 

 representation of this is given in the Geol. Rep., Vol. II, 

 p. 563. It is no wonder that the early settlers called these 

 nodules "petrified butternuts." 



When the writer first examined this curious variety, fifty 

 years ago he gave it the name "nodular granite," and still 

 prefers that name, notwithstanding Dr. Hitchcock has given 

 the name "concretionary granite." He has sent specimens 

 of it to Europe and various other places, and has received 

 from various geologists acknowledgement accompanied by 

 the remark, "your nodular granite is a great curiosity. 

 We have never seen any thing like it." A German geolo- 

 gist, in his reply, said, "I have heard of something like it, 

 in the north-eastern part of Germany." In the western 

 part of Stanstead, is a small development of nodular gran- 

 ite, a few nodules are seen in Browningtou in a ledge 

 there, but it is seen in Craftsbury in a most magnificent 

 development, and again in the western part of Northfield, 

 where it is lost under the talcose schists. 



The most beautiful forms of this singular rock, have been 

 removed from the top of the mass in Craftsbury, by the 

 Drift or some other agency, and moved southerly for a 

 long distance. The specimens from which the cut in the 

 Geol. Rep., p. 232, was made, the writer procured from a 

 large boulder iu the south-eastern part of Waterford. 

 Another boulder nearly as beautiful lies in a stone wall in 

 Lyndon, and another between Hazen Wood and East Hard- 

 wick Village. A boulder weighing fifty tons or more, of 

 the same variety has been split for imderpinning, at Rye- 

 gate. Another, larger, is still lying by the side of the 

 road a mile, perhaps south of Judge Bells's in Walden. 

 Talcose granite (Protogine) is found in this range at Crafts- 

 bury, which would, no doubt, make a valuable lining for 

 furnaces. " It occurs in several other places. 



The granite in other parts of the county was, doubtless, 

 formed at different times and is not of the same age. 



