GEOLOGY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY DISTRICT. 435 



E. 50°. Some of the layers are sandy. Near the line, on the west side 

 of Bald mountain, Bernardston, the dip of the black slate is 15° S. 50° E, 

 Clay slate occurs along this road for two miles north and south. At the 

 crossing of the state line by the back road from Vernon to Bernardston, 

 on top of the water-shed, twisted slates dip only 5° S. 20° W. — possibly 

 an abnormal position. On the west side of the road the dip is 70° S. 70'' 

 W. A quarter of a mile south the slates dip 15° S. 50° E. on top of a 

 cliff, and then 50° E. A mile and a half east, on the line, we come to 

 an argillaceous schist, with staurolite on Pond mountain, which is supposed 

 to belong to the upper or Coos series. On passing to the "Basin" in dis- 

 trict No. 9, from the base of the hill, we find, first, a schist similar to those 

 holding imperfect crystals of staurolite, dipping east and north-east. This 

 is followed by a neatly-splitting slate, dipping 75° W. In the "Basin" the 

 rocks are slaty, twisted, with white quartz bosses, and a general inclina- 

 tion to the east. This locality is close to the town line. The hill west of 

 Fall river is composed of this same slate, including West mountain, where 

 the dip is 60° N. 86° E. 



We see that foldings occur on all these sectional lines across the clay 

 slate, and that anticlinals are prominent. They may perhaps best ex- 

 press its stratigraphical structure, and that it unconformably underlies 

 the Vernon and Bernardston quartzite series of formations. 



There is a singular interstratification of slates, with siliceous rocks, in 

 the north-east corner of Vernon, On passing to the north we find the 

 usual quartzite at the Hubbard place, opposite the location of old Fort 

 Bridgeman, dipping about 35° E. The range may be half a mile long 

 (No. 103). At Mrs. E. Howe's, by old Fort Sartwell, is an argillaceous 

 schist (No. 102). Just north of the Witch gutter the quartzite reappears, 

 with the same dip as before. The slates succeeding are much contorted 

 and broken, as if by pressure between the sandstones. Nos. 99 and 100 

 are quartzes, one hundred and thirty rods south of Broad brook ; No. 98 

 is a slate, ten rods farther north ; Nos. 96 and 97 are siliceous rocks, with 

 a little mica and iron, ninety rods south of the brook. From this point 

 to Brattleboro' all the ledges are of slate. These siliceous rocks may be 

 continued in the quartzites appearing on the east bank of the Connecticut, 

 just above the Brattleboro' bridge (Nos. 104 and 105). 



