AZOIC LIMESTONE. 555 



metamorphosing the stratified rocks, and converting some of them into the unstratified, 

 we can see how the distinction between them should often be very obscure and uncertain. 

 Such is certainly the case with serpentine and dolomite, both of which are sometimes 

 stratified, and sometimes unstratified. We are apprehensive that some other system of 

 classification must be adopted, to include such rocks, and also some varieties of gneiss, 

 and even some of the schists. 



SACCHAROID AZOIC LIMESTONE. 



BT C. H. HITCHCOCK. 



Beds of limestone and dolomite are found in the gneiss, talcose schist, and calciferous 

 mica schist of Vermont. Those which occur in the latter formation have already been 

 described, on account of their stratigraphical peculiarities. But those which are found in 

 the gneiss and talcose schist deserve a separate description. They are azoic, as they occur 

 in connection with unfossiliferous rocks. As they are generally white and highly crystal- 

 line, thus resembling loaf sugar, they are termed saccharoid. In some situations the rock 

 is dark-colored, or it may receive various other colors from the minerals disseminated 

 through it. 



Saccharoid limestone occurs in Eeadsboro, Whitingham, Wilmington, Somerset, Statton, Jamaica, Towns- 

 hend, Athens, Windham, Andover, Mount Tabor, Weathersfield, Cavendish, Ludlow, Plymouth, Mendon, 

 Kochester, Bethel, Hancock, Granville, Moretown, Duxbury, Johnson, Waterville, Bakersfield, Richford 

 and Lunenburgh. 



In Whitingham the limestone is largely developed in the gneiss. There is a bed of very crystalline 

 limestone upon J. Kentfield's land, in the western part of the town. Analysis shows it to be nearly pure 

 carbonate of lime. It is composed of carbonate of lime, 97.5 ; carbonate of magnesia, 2.1 ; alumina and 

 peroxyd of iron, 0.2 ; and of silica, 0.2. Its appearance is saccharoid, and the west part of the bed is a very 

 clear while. The strike of this bed is N. 10 W., and the dip is 25 W. Jointed planes in the limestone 

 run N. 80 W., and dip 80 S. The width of the bed is very great. We could not ascertain its exact 

 limits because of the abundance of drift covering the rocks. Other bright colored limestones are found at 

 the bed besides the white. Very near this bed we found other smaller beds, a few inches in thickness. We 

 are inclined to believe that small beds of limestone are very numerous in Whitingham and Readsboro, for 

 we saw several of them in passing from Kentfield's bed to Deerfield River. Some of them were several feet 

 thick, and have been used for the manufacture of quicklime. Other beds of limestone are said to occur 

 west of Deerfield River, in Readsboro. 



There is a large bed of limestone in Whitingham, also, upon the land of Jonathan Dix and Shubal 

 Atherton. It is about two miles west of the village of Whitingham, and occupies the bottom of the valley, 

 even in the bed of a small stream. Its strike is N. 10 W., and its dip is 40 W. It is three or four rods 

 wide. It is white and decidedly crystalline, though often containing bronze-colored mica, and sulphuret 

 of molybdenum in small plates. Associated with it, also, are actinolite. augite, and mussite. It may be 

 traced for a mile or two along this stream. It underlies Kentfield's bed, being separated from it by gneiss. 



From several different persons we have heard of the existence of a bed of limestone in Wilmington, but 

 we have not seen it. It is said to be upon Haystack Mountain, and to be upon an island in a pond. Others 

 say that it is less than two miles west of the village. 



There is an elegant variety of dolomite east of the iron mine in the southeast part of Somerset. Some 

 of it closely resembles the purest loaf sugar. In Stratton (what was formerly a part of Somerset) there are 

 two deposits of limestone, the most northern of which belongs to Rufus Lyman, Esq. There are two beds 

 near each other upon Lyman's farm, the widest of which is four rods wide, and the other is only ten feet 

 wide. Their strike is N. 30 E., and their inclination 45 E. Joints in them run N. 10 W., dipping 



