i5()\VIJ)KliS. 5ftl 



A single bowlder of compact, pure magnetite, alxmt a foot in diiini- 

 eter, was found by Mr. W. Newall, of Pelham, in the brook above the ( )rient 

 House. A portion of it is preserved in the collection of bowlders in the 

 Amherst College cabinet. It came })rol)ably from Bernardston. 



Tlie bowlders of green hornblendic (juartzite wliich liiive furnislied S(i 

 many mineral specimens under the name of Shay's iliiit, praze, honistone, 

 etc., the origin of which was unknown, I have traced to a band of tonalite, 

 from vvhieli this rock has been formed as an aphanitic and siliceous product, 

 by crushing ahmg the great eastern fault. It appears cap|)ing the Pelham 

 gneiss in a thin band along its western exposure in Pelham, and is now 

 mostly concealed l)y drift. It is best exposed in the bhiffs FyQ rods west of 

 the road running south from the house of Mr. S. Jewett, in the west part 

 of Pelham, where this road crosses the town line. 



Just at the west border of rhe village of Amherst, on the brow of the 

 hill and along a north-south line, the large conglomerate bowlders were 

 accunmlated in unusual abundance. As the laud has been long under cul- 

 tivation, many have been removed, but many still project from the surface. 

 In building my house, on Northampton road, I had to remove three, which 

 contained about 300 cubic feet. It may be assumed with great probability 

 that they came from the rock-cut benches on the west of Mount Tobv. 



President Hitchcock notes^ "about 1 mile northeast of the college, 

 in a field, numerous bowlders of chalcedony and horustone, resembling 

 almost exactl}' a gi-eat vein in the southeast part of Conway," with which 

 much pyrolusite is associated. These bowlders continue to be found, and 

 one of my foruier students, Mr. Horace B. Patton, found a great mass of 

 the same rock, about C feet on a side, on the eastern spur of Mount Holvoke. 

 I have little doubt the)^ all came from Conway. 



Perched bowlders, often poised so that they can be easily moved, 

 occur in several places in the region. Such a one is the "Hanging Rock," 

 on the farm of Jonathan Buddington, in Leyden, wliich is estimated to 

 weigh 20 tons, and has been known since 1800. It can be moved with 

 one hand. On the old Atwood farm near the Winchester line, in Warwick, 

 is another, estimated weight 100 tons, whicli can also be moved with one 

 hand; also two specimens on the Blackmer farm, in Greenwich. The above 

 three are noted in History of Connecticut Valley, Vol. II, page 754. 



■ Geology of Massachusetts, 1835, p. 344. 

 MON XXIX 36 



