Remarks on the Lead Veins of Massachusetts. 167 
Franklin counties would doubtless throw much light upon the. 
subject; and it would certainly be desirable to trace the 
bearings, and fix the limits of the lead in Massachusetts with 
more precision. 
I neighbourhood of the locality above mentioned, I 
procured several specimens of a mineral which I have since 
ascertained to be serpentine. They are somewhat harder 
than those I have seen from the Milford quarry, have a very 
fine and beautiful grain, and are slightly translucent at their — 
edges. 
eae been much pleased and instructed by the perusal, in 
the Journal of Science, of Mr. Hitchcock’s excellent de- 
scription of the Connecticut Valley. He has done the sub- 
ject ample justice, and himself the more honour, from the cir- 
cumstance that most of the geological facts which he mien- 
tions, are the result of his own accurate observation. What 
he has described, he has examined, and examined closely; 
and it must be no small gratification to this gentleman to re- 
flect, that the section of country which he has with such 
unwearied assiduity investigated, (I here speak more partic- 
ularly of Hampshire and Franklin‘counties,) is becoming, or 
rather has already become, the rallying point of all the min- 
eralogists in Massachusetts. : 
Mr. Hitchcock has entered at considerable length into the 
theory with regard to two lakes, one of which he supposes to 
have been north, and the other south of Holyoke. Were 
further proof necessary to convince the intelligent inquirer, 
that there must have been, at some period, a vast body o 
water on the north side, at least, of Holyoke, would it go to 
remove his doubt to tell him, that organic remains have been 
found in the meadows in Sunderland fifteen or twenty feet 
below the surface, and that very probably the rocks which 
form the falls at South Hadley were thrown into their pres- 
ent confused position, at the time the body of water alluded 
to forced its way through the mountain ! 
Very respectfully yours, 
AUSTIN O. HUBBARD, 
