138 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MAR. 26, 
part of his useful life, with the sympathy of this Academy in 
her affliction. 
N. L. Britton. 
D. S. Martin. 
K. 8. F. ARNOLD. 
The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 
Dr. N. L. Britron exhibited a block of hornblende granyte, 
(quartz-syenyte) from the Powerville quarries, Morris Co., 
N. J., of great strength and durability, with no apparent bed- 
ding, and lying at the base of the Archean series and character- 
istic of the class of rocks which he had designated the Massive 
Group.’ It is avery tough rock of high specific gravity and dark 
color, owing to the large amount of hornblende, and has recently 
been employed in the construction of a large mansion at Morris- 
town. ‘The quarry is situated towards the southern end of an 
area of similar massive rocks underlying several square miles of 
Morris County, to the north and east of Boonton. As is the 
case in other areas of this group, the rock varies greatly in the 
percentage of hornblende contained, and in other parts of the 
same area varies toward granulyte, in which there is none of that 
mineral. Evidence of original stratification is found in the 
rocks of this massive group in the lamination and parallel ar- 
rangement of the minerals; and very rarely, and at very wide in- 
tervals, indistinct bedding planes have been detected. While 
there is no proof that they have had an eruptive origin, it is very 
evident that the forces of metamorphism to which they have 
been subjected have completely altered their structure. They 
have never been observed in the form of dykes. 
The PresIpENT spoke of the character and supposed origin 
of these basal rocks. 
Mr. W. E. HippeN announced the finding, by Mr. William 
Niven, in a pegmatyte dyke near 155th street and Eleventh 
avenue, of three mineral species new to the island. These are 
iolite, pinite, and xenotime. The latter is of unusual perfection. 
Mr. Hidden also stated that he had received the past week, 
from North Carolina, zircon to the amount of six and one-half 
1 See Annual Report State Geologist of New Jersey, 1886, p. 77. 
