520 RANGE AND EXTENT. 



characteristic form than usual, namely, a soft schistose rock of a clear green color. It 

 passes north into Weathersfield ; and as the Connecticut makes an abrupt curve westward, 

 the schist crosses the river into New Hampshire. In these three towns this rock has only 

 been casually examined. 



Its prolongation into New Hampshire we have not seen. In the northeast part of 

 Hartland the river turns quickly to the northeast, and thus the schist enters Hartford. 

 A mile and a half southwest of White River Junction, the rock is an indurated talcosc 

 schist with sulphurets of iron and copper in small veins scattered through it. A porphy- 

 ritic hornblende rock is found to the east of this, and veins of quartz traverse the forma- 

 tion. Along White River we found numerous blocks of the peculiar indurated black 

 calcareous schist belonging to this range. There are obscure traces of stratification in it : 

 and numerous large blotches of a black argillaceous matter, which effervesces strongly with 

 acid, are thickly strewed through it. At White River Village a compact hornblende rock 

 is interstratified with soft talcose slate. Analogous rocks were passed over on our way to 

 Norwich Center. Southeast of this village there is characteristic talcose schist filled with 

 magnetite, succeeded on the east by the calcareous indurated schists, having here, espe- 

 cially when slightly acted upon by the weather, a reddish tinge. 



At Hanover, N. H., the rock changes to hornblende schist containing beautiful small 

 garnets, which are much prized by mineralogists. Along the Passumpsic railroad through 

 the whole of Norwich, there is a fine opportunity to study this rock. There is a porphy- 

 ritic hornblende rock containing rutile, etc., closely resembling a rock of the same appella- 

 tion in Williamsville, at some mills west of Norwich Center. In the north part of Norwich 

 and passing over the Thetford line, is a large deposit of an impure serpentine in talcose 

 schist ; and there is steatite in Thetford upon the land of Jeduthan Taylor and Jacob 

 Newcomb. Generally in Thetford the characteristic variety of talcose schist is present. 

 It merges into clay slate westerly, and is talco-micaceous in its eastern part. As we pro- 

 ceed north, talcose schist of the common and indurated varieties are everywhere seen 

 along the river in East Fairlee and Bradford. 



South of the village of Newbury indurated talcose schist appears. East of the village 

 at an excavation for the railroad the rock is a very fine-grained talcose slate, but not gener- 

 ally argillaceous. Two miles north it is soft and easily crumbles ; and has been much 

 contorted and broken by some force exerted in the alluvial period. Near the same locality 

 the strata become thicker, take a little hornblende into their composition, and bunches of 

 limestone appear in the crevices. Very fine dendrites are here also. In Newbury this 

 range is more than two miles wide. North of Newbury the formation trends to the east 

 and passes out of Vermont in the north part of Ryegate into Bath and Munroe in New 

 Hampshire. It appears again in the northeast part of Barnet as Vermont there begins 

 to widen greatly its area. Associated with it there is an interesting breccia cemented by 

 syenite, analogous to some semi-igneous rocks of the southern part of the State. 



Fig. 277 represents a section of the whole of this range from Littleton, N. H., to the 

 west part of Waterford. East of the porphyritic granite there is an immense amount of 

 common granite. The talcose schist first seen stands upon its edges, and is both indurated 

 and soft, with a little serpentine. The porphyritic hornblende rock is a very compact 

 hornblende with large distinct crystals of feldspar scattered through it. It exceedingly 



