GEOLOGY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY DISTRICT. 419 



there is the quartz of Mine ledge, that extends south into Westmoreland 

 and Keene, and though with the protogene gneiss it sometimes forms a 

 breccia, yet it is entirely unlike the quartzites and quartz conglomerates. 

 The quartzites here do not differ essentially from those in the topograph- 

 ical district of the Connecticut valley. Graphite, however, has been found 

 here, though nowhere else in the quartzites ; and the associated rocks are 

 quite different from those found elsewhere. Among the questions that 

 arise, is the relative age of the quartzite and quartz schist, as compared 

 with that of the quartz conglomerate. There are many reasons for sup- 

 posing that the latter are the most recent of all the rocks in this section 

 of the state. The most easterly band of these quartzose rocks has its 

 northern outcrop a quarter of a mile north-east of the Fish place in Gilsum. 

 The strata here have been much disturbed, though the general strike is 

 east and west, and the dip south. About half a mile south the dip is S. 22° 

 E. 20°. Not far from M. T. Wilcox's, the strata seem to have been little 

 disturbed. The outcrops extend half a mile nearly parallel with the road ; 

 and the strike is almost directly north and south, while there is a slight 

 westerly dip. Alongside of a small stream there is a fine opportunity for 

 examining the strata, which here contain flattened pebbles. This rock 

 is cut off on the north by a coarse intrusive granite. We have not been 

 able to trace it south, as the valley across which the strike would carry 

 it is covered by drift. But in Keene, on the west side of Beech hill, we 

 find a quartz schist, also on the hill a little east of south from the station 

 at South Keene. On Surry mountain the general strike of the Montal- 

 ban gneisses is nearly north and south ; but on the south end of the 

 mountain, about half a mile north of the Austin place, we find a band of 

 quartz conglomerate apparently resting on the contorted strata of the 

 gneisses. It extends north-east, and is found on the hill just back of J. 

 B. Elliott's in Gilsum, and also just west of O. McCoy's, about twenty 

 rods from the road. The pebbles are from an inch to more than a foot 

 in diameter, and are generally oblong. This band, running diagonally 

 across the general strike of the rocks of the country, is shown clearly 

 to be the most recent of all the rocks in this section. In the south- 

 west part of Surry, a few rods east of H. Britton's, there is a limited out- 

 crop of quartzite, and it is very near the quartz. In Keene, south of the 

 railroad and on the range of hills known as West mountain, there are 



