Description of the Bare Hills. 359 



these ravines, but more especially above and below, or north of U, 

 where it is deposited in abundance in the crevices, and depressions in 

 the rocks in the bottom of the ravine. In the ravine that extends to the 

 south west, several fruitless excavations have been made for chrome* 

 Chrome was found at the several excavations at V W X Y Z, and 

 in the hills on the right and left of the ravine, but not in quantities 

 sufficient to justify a prosecution of the works. The veins of chrome 

 are so intimately blended with the gangue, (most of which is a 

 very compact indurated talc steatite) that it is almost impossible to sep- 

 arate the one from the other, and hence the specimens, obtained from 

 the surface about the pits, are traversed by veins of chrome of a green- 

 ish color, from one half of an inch to two inches thick, which gives 



I 



them a pleasing aspect. Ascending the hill on the south, to its sum- 

 mit, we find an unfrequented road (running down the eastern slope 

 of the Bare Hills, to the gun-powder works, and to the turnpike road) 

 which may be said to be nearly the dividing line between the serpen- 

 tine and steatite formation. 



In describing, thus far, the prominent features of the Bare Hills, 

 I have embraced but a part, of the many points or objects that are 

 interesting to the Mineralogist. My design has been to give a cor- 

 rect sketch of the district, with such a description of the principal lo- 

 calities as would enable a transient visitor to avail himself of its ad- 

 vantages, without the fatigue and trouble of what might otherwise 



prove, an unprofitable search* 



I might have extended my views to the varied features of the 

 districts that lie contiguous to the Bare Hills, a few of which it may 

 not be amiss to mention viz. — the two small houses on the west 

 side of the road, are situated in a narrow valley, formed on one side 

 by the abrupt slope of the serpentine ridge already mentioned, and 

 on which one of the houses stands ; through this valley flows a 

 small stream of water supplied by a copious spring, or springs, that 

 rise a short distance in the skirt of the woods. From this, onward, 

 there is, at certain seasons, a very copious deposit of ferruginous 

 and other substances, indicating a mineral impregnation of the wa- 

 ter. 



Immediately on the north side of this run, the hills rise abruptly. 



The first rock formation that appears, and that too by the road side, 

 is a coarse granite, in which the mica, that occurs in large plates, is 

 of a beautiful emerald green. The rock, that succeeds next, is a 

 very much contorted mica schist. A few rods further north, the rocks 



