Concluding Remarks. 7 1 



the operation, unless it be broken by the reading of the Bible, and all 

 must be done in the night. The last instance of the practice of this 

 mummery, which I have heard of, occurred a few years since on one 

 of the branches of Westfield river. A hundred days' work were 

 expended upon the enterprise before it was abandoned At one time 

 those employed in this work were greatly discouraged, by the intru- 

 sion of my informant, who, in spite of all they could do by gestures, 

 broke silence and thus dissolved the charm. At another time, cour- 

 age was revived by finding an iron pot, containing some bits of copper, 

 deposited there, the day previous, by some boys who had learned what 

 was going forward. 



I have given these rather mortifying details, partly because I doubt 

 whether nine tenths of our population are aware of the existence ot 

 such opinions and practices among us ; and partly in the hope that the 

 exposition may be instrumental in entirely eradicating them from the 

 minds of those who have been thus deluded. For, like night fogs, 

 they need only to be brought into the light of day to be dissipated. 



Concluding Remarks. 



In concluding this summary of the economical geology of Massa- 

 chusetts, I cannot but allude to the very imperfect development which 

 has hitherto been made of our mineral resources. Judging from 

 what we know at present, our granites, marbles, and other rocks, use- 

 ful in architecture, are undoubtedly the richest of these resources. 

 Yet it is only a few years, since these rocks (with the exception of 

 some quarries of marble,) have been employed at all for building; 

 and even now, only a few beds, and these very possibly not the best, 

 have been opened. In the vicinity of Connecticut river, the inhabit- 

 ants are just beginning to learn that they have beautiful granite in 

 their own hills and mountains. The Berkshire marbles are wrought 

 on a stinted scale, compared with what they might be, were a rail- 

 road to furnish the means of an easy transportation to the Hudson. 

 And as to our porphyries and serpentines, various and abundant as 

 they are, it is rare to meet with a single polished specimen. Our 

 mineral veins and beds, with the exception of a few mines of iron, 

 and one of lead, lie as yet almost untouched, and probably many of 

 them undiscovered. 



These facts ought to be kept in mind in forming an estimate of our 

 mineral resources. Yet imperfect as is our acquaintance with these, 

 I think we need not fear a comparison, in this respect, with any other 



