HOOSAO MOUNTAIN. 107 



In the preceding pages of this chapter no reference has been made to 

 earlier work iii this area, because the little recorded is largely based <>n a 

 genera] survey of the Green mountains and no attempt has been made to 

 master the local structure in detail. 



Most geological workers have given their attention to the limestone 

 and schists west of the axial range. Prof. J. 1 >. Dana, who has devoted so 

 many years of his life to the Taconic question, has published no decided 

 opinion on the Hoosac tunnel series. The geological sections of Presi- 

 dent Hitchcock and Prof. ( !. II. Hitchcock, 1 which cross this area, are not 

 sufficiently detailed for comparison in this connection. 



Ebenezer Emmons alludes to Hoosac mountain in his "Taconic Sys- 

 tem."-' He considers that the Hoosac mountain schists were primary and 

 that the lower Taconic rocks (Mount Greylock) were derived from them — a 

 theory by which he explains the close lithological similarity which he had 

 observed between the two rocks. It is evident how inadequate this theory 

 is to explain this resemblance when we remember that in the albite schist, 

 for instance, common to both series, the albite crystals are metamorphic in 

 both rocks. 



Emmons also describes (p. 120) the contact of conglomerate and gneiss 

 on Clarksburg mountain, north of Williamstown. 



President E. Hitchcock 3 regards as primary the Hoosac mountain lime- 

 stones at the base and part of the rocks further west. He also speaks of 

 the transitions between quartzite and gneiss. 



Prof. C. H. Hitchcock * places a fault between the limestone at the west 

 portal of the tunnel and the Hoosac mountain gneiss. 



In the writings of Prof. J. D. Dana on the Taconic rocks there are a 

 few allusions to the Hoosac mountain region. He speaks of the Stamford 

 granite as "an undoubted Archean area,"' 1 but this seems to be based on 

 lithological characters. He says, 6 "there is some reason for making Hoosac 

 mountain Cambrian." 



1 Geology of Massachusetts, 1841. Geology of Vermont, 1861. 



- Agricultural Report, New York. p. 53. 



n Final Report, Geology of Massachusetts, p. 577 et «nj. 



■"Geology ofVejniont, p. 597. 



■ Am.T. Jour. Soi., vol. 33, 1X87, p. 274. 



"Ibid., p. 410, 



