494 MINERALS. 



seems to be arrested by an outburst of granite. No more is recognized till we reach tho 

 mouth of Passurnpsic River. From thence it passes somewhat east of that river, till it 

 seems to be cut off by the great masses of granite in the northeast part of the State.. 

 Yet on the most northerly section Mr. Hall has placed in the east part of Holland, a 

 stratum of novaculite which we know is usually associated with clay slate, and this may 

 be the northern extremity of the Connecticut River range ; though to reach that point in 

 Holland, it must curve a good deal to the west. 



The second range is represented as extending uninterruptedly from Barnard to Lake 

 Memphremagog, and on the east side of the lake to Canada. South of Barnard it has 

 not been noticed in sufficient quantity to find a place on the map. Its northern terminus 

 on the map around Memphremagog, has not been traced out by us as accurately as it 

 ought to be. 



The third range commences in Troy and is quite narrow, passing often into plumbagi- 

 nous slate or even into mica schist. It is probably pinched off in some places. But from 

 having found this slate in small quantities as far south as Bridgewater, on all the sections 

 we have ventured to represent a narrow continuous belt as far south as that town. We 

 believe it has not been worked as roofing slate anywhere. As we have traced it out, it 

 runs parallel most of the way to the second range above described, curving essentially as 

 that does. South of Bridgewater we suspect that metamorphic action has changed this 

 into some other rock. But on the two southern sections a slate appears which might well 

 be called clay slate passing into mica schist. So that we doubt not this range was once 

 continuous through the State. 



In the talcose schist west of the Green Mountains, in the north part of this State, we 

 have found at least one narrow belt of clay slate. We have represented it as extending 

 only from Richford to Avery's Gore, although probably we might follow it further. 

 Another band exists still further west in Fairfield and Sheldon in connection with the 

 talcose schist, and probably it extends further. 



The principal belts of slate west of the mountains form constituents of what we suppose 

 to be the Hudson River group and the Georgia group. Two belts are in the southern 

 part of the State and two in the northern. The most eastern of the southern belt com- 

 mences about as far north as Middlebury and runs to Arlington before it passes into New 

 York. The western belt commences in Orwell and is separated from the western by a 

 belt of limestone till the formation has extended a considerable distance into New York, 

 where the two slate belts unite and the limestone disappears. The fine quarries of slate 

 in western Vermont and in eastern New York occur in these two belts. The bands of 

 slate in the northern part of the State extend in interstratified patches from the Winooski 

 River to the Canada line. They ought rather to be called shales, and are not of a character 

 to be employed in roofing. 



Mineral Contents. 



The simple minerals found in this rock are few. Where it passes into mica schist we not unfrequently 

 find an imperfect sort of kyanite, (as at Bellows Falls) and garnet. Formerly novaculite would have 

 been reckoned among the simple minerals ; but it is obviously only a variety of the rock, and sometimes, 

 as at Guilford, almost equal in quantity to the slate. It will probably some day become of economical 

 value for hones, but as a mineral it possesses little interest. 



