GEOLOGY OF THE MERRIMACK DISTRICT. 591 



substance quarried in New England. It is known to be four hundred 

 feet long and forty feet wide, seems to be free from horses, and is all of 

 good quality. It dips N. W. 60°, and has been excavated to the depth of 

 one hundred feet. Mica schist is found on the south-east side. At 

 Francestown village ferruginous schists dip north-west, and also half a 

 mile north-west of the turn of a road to Deering. The whole of the 

 eastern part of the town is composed of the same material. Near the 

 south-east corner it is compact and twisted. At S. Duland's, near the 

 Greenfield line, the dip is 50° N. 85° W. Ferruginous quartzite crops out 

 at the south-east end of Haunted pond, with the strike N. 57° E., and 

 vertical strata. The same is true of the rocks at S. Langdell's, in the 

 west part of New Boston. Between this point and S. & J. P. Todd's, the 

 white feldspathic rock described in Canterbury and Hopkinton makes its 

 appearance. At times it resembles a conglomerate. With it are gray 

 quartzites, and soft, talcy strata resembling soapstone. The ferruginous 

 rocks of this series make a branch into New Boston from the main rano-e, 

 and are believed to extend as far as the lenticular drift hills on both sides 

 of J. Cochran's. South-west from Francestown the ferruginous band 

 occupies the space between the Rockingham schists of Lyndeborough 

 and Temple mountains, on the east end of the gneissic areas to the west, 

 perhaps extending into the north edge of Peterborough. The mica 

 schist at the south end of Cragin pond, Greenfield, dipping 85° S. 50° E., 

 may belong here. On the north-east side of Pollard pond ferruginous 

 mica schist dips 70° N. 30° W. The short Henniker and Warner range 

 is obviously a repetition of the longer bands, while that is folded in Weare, 

 and probably also in the east part of Francestown, in connection with the 

 spur running into New Boston. The similarity of the rock to the Rock- 

 ingham series is quite obvious, especially if the feldspathic beds may be 

 the equivalent of those in Londonderry, etc. The presence of the soap- 

 stone may be a still better band of union. Boulders of soapstone occur 

 in Pelham, and a short distance over the Massachusetts line, in Dracut. 

 They are of large size. I have also seen specimens of the rock from 

 Island pond in Hampstead. These fragments must have been derived 

 from the Merrimack or Rockingham group, from some ledge north of the 

 localities of the boulders, perhaps the continuation of the Groton range. 



