Geology and Mineralogy of a part of Massachusetts, &c. Ww 
seams oblique to the lines of the strata. The seams are 
so numerous, that it is easily obiaiogaor building stone. 
Near the foot of the hill, on the W. side of Washington, 
agile SE. from the village of Pittsfield, the quartz rock 
wuish red or brownish gray,and very:remarkable for re- 
e. Itis used for the walls and hearth 
,enox, and for the same object was trans- 
ported at great expense to Bennington, Vt. until the same 
rock was discovered near the furnace in that place. A 
similar rock is found in Williamstown. It is not known to 
what this peculigg, pre sonar is to be attributed, the existence 
ich in is the more singular, as this rock 
crack a : a application of high heat. Indeed this 
is the sone method of getting quartz rock into manage- 
able fragments. I have, however, seen this stone after it 
had Paine the highest heat of the furnace for months, 
and found its surface merely glazed by the high tempera- 
ture. 
Near this rock in Washington, but at a greater elevation, 
is a variety of quartz rock, of a whitish aspeet and full of 
ragged and irregular cavities. It is pretty extensively 
wroughi into riders after the manner of the Paris burh- 
stone. Itis an excellent stone for this use. It corres- 
s to the ccnerdl description of burhstone, and passes 
familiarly under the name of = nee burhstone. 1 have 
never seen in it those ‘siliceous threads” which are so com- 
mon in the burhstone of Paris. Tn its vader appearance, 
it is very different from the Paris burhstone, as well as that 
of Georgia. I see no reason why it should not be called 
burhstone, unless this mineral actually belongs to secondary 
rocks, The rock at Washington certainly. is surrounded 
on all sides with primitive rocks, and separated from even 
the transition rocks by several different strata reget for 
miles to the limit of the primitive formation, A similar va- 
riety of quartz rock is found in Williamstown, and tek been 
employed for the same purpose. In Williamstown and 
Bennington rolled masses of quartz occur in large quanti- 
es. 
Quartz rock is liable to disintegration, especially where it 
lies but just beneath the surface of the earth. In the south 
part of Cheshire, this rock is disintegrated toa great extent, 
and an excélleat nig paar a is found over acres of 
No. 
Vou. VIII. 
