HISTOEICAL SKETCH. 5 



quest, roamed over tlie hills hunting for minerals, and became as acute and 

 skillful in the search as their neighbors did in hunting and fishing. I do 

 not know that Mr. Nash was a cobbler, but I suspect so, for I have found 

 both here and in Europe that, perhaps from the intermittent character of 

 their employment, men of this trade are exceptionall}' apt to develop the 

 taste for collecting minerals. 



Of the long list of these men who have forwarded mineralogy in an 

 unambitious way I will mention only Mr. B. Hosford, of Springfield, Avho, 

 at the suggestion of Professor Shepard, first dissected one of the Lancaster 

 chiastolites, which was figured in Dana's Mineralogy, and whose study of 

 the salt crystals in Westfield I have reported in Bulletin No. Vlii of the 

 United States Geological Survey, and Mr. William Newell, of Pelham, long 

 time cobbler in Amherst. Students long before and after my time in college 

 will remember his love of minerals and his reticence concerning his " locali- 

 ties." There was a pint of fine amethysts in the collection at Amherst which 

 he had gathered from the gravels of Amethyst Brook. If they had been 

 solid gold they would have poorly paid him for the time spent in searching 

 for them ; being amethysts, however, they satisfied hini much better. 



The first mineral from Hampshire County to receive notice abroad 

 was the albite of Chesterfield (cleavelandite) , which, as kieselspath, was 

 described by Ilausmann in 1817. The first article on minerals from this 

 area by Professor Shepard appeared in 1824, beginning a half century of 

 work as profitable for the advance of mineralogy in this region as that of 

 President Hitchcock was for the progress of geology. 



The halting places in the history of the geology of the valley are the 

 dates of the publication of the principal works of President Hitchcock, as 

 follows : 



1818. Remarks on Geology of a Section of Massachusetts. This was 



followed by a period of collecting minerals and recording their localities, 



and by the beginnings of geological work, especially by Prof xVmos Eaton. 



1823. Sketch of Geology of the Region of the River Connecticut. 



This was succeeded by a continuation of the collecting and recording period. 



1833. Report on Geology of Massachusetts. 



1835. Report on Geology of Massachusetts, second edition. This was 

 followed by the most interesting episode in the history of the geology of 

 the Connecticut, the discovery and description of the very numerous and 



