KE^y iiAMPsniRE. 



389 



de[»osition.; The former, however, are what appear at the first glance to be the 

 strata, and as l)y this hiterpretatioii tlie positicju of the rocks at Watcu'viUe will 

 corres])oiKl with that iu Frunconia about the Lafayette range, our former ideas 

 must be modified." (l. c, pp. 15, IG.) 



Again, in a paper road a few mouths later, Prof. Hitchcock said : 



*' In ascending from ' Beckytown ' the first rock met with is 'tracliytic 

 <Tanite.' This I called 'gneiss with noduhir ortlioclase' in my first sketch, 

 with seams or strata dipidng (by compass) SO'' soutli, 70° west. .... A care- 

 ful examination of this granitic rock hi numerous localities leads to the coii- 

 clusioiL that it is a true erupted granite and not a gneiss ; though it is possible 



the present case may be an exception The first ledge of (mipnto a])- 



pears a few rods higher up Tlie rock seems to be stratilied, the jdanes 



dip[)ing about twenty degrees nortlierly The importance of this discov- 

 ery may be best appreciated by remembering that the presence of the lime 

 feldsp;irs affords a strong presumption that these rocks are Eo/oic, and not 

 metamorphic Paleozoic formations. It seems to be generally admitted by geol- 

 ogists that these feldspars arc confined to the older rocks, except as found in 

 eruptive trappean and volcanic masses." (Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1872, 

 XXL pp. 135-151.) 



In the second volume of the Final Report on the Geology of New 

 Hampshire, pages 210, 214, 257, 258, 206, the following statement is 

 made regarding tho hibradorite and its associated rocks : 



" None of the Labra(h)r areas, whether in America or Europe, have yet 

 been carefully studied stratigraphically, so that we have not the means of 

 knowing their thickness. Tlie lines of iron ore and other foreign minerals 

 betler agree with the idea of stratification than to suppose the masses are erup- 

 tive. Ill the study of New Enghuid rocks, tlie labradorite aids us greatly, 

 since most geoh)gists are prepared to accept it as indicating formations of 

 Eozoic date ; and, if these tricliinc feldspar layers rest upon strata formerly 

 thought to be Paleozoic, they render it probable that both the underlying and 

 contignous masses belong to very ancient syst^ems 



*'A few rods above [BeckytoAvn] is an exposure of the same rocks with 

 those seen at the falls, dipping 80° S. \{f V{. The strata are indicated by folia 

 of mica and a little of a dark hypersthenic 'mineral, often forming nodules. 



Thercarejointcdplanes, also, with a dip westerly of 25° Between Norway 



and Cascade brooks there seems to be an anticlinal axis in the porphyrilic 

 gneiss. At first I was satished that this rock Avas gneiss, but did not recognize 

 its true phice with tho porjihyritic group. Sul»se(piently I referred it to the 

 * trachytic ' or Albany granite, buj, a reexamination iu 1875 shows that it be- 

 longs to the ohlest of our formations, and is distinctly stratified, traversed by 

 trap dykes and narrow banded veins of (juartz. These exposures do not occupy 

 more than two hundred feet of distance. A few rods up Norway brook ap- 

 pears the first ledge of tlic ossipytc 



