NEW HAMPSHIRE. 389 



deposition. The former, however, are what appear at the first glance to be the 

 strata, and as by this interpretation the position of the rocks at Waterville will 

 correspond with that in Franconia about the Lafayette range, our former ideas 

 must be modified." {I. c, pp. 15, 16.) 



Again, in a paper read a few months later. Prof. Hitchcock said : — 

 " In ascending from ' Beckytown ' the first rock met with is ' trachytic 

 granite.' This I called ' gneiss with nodular orthoclase ' in my first sketch, 

 with seams or strata dipping (by compass) 80° south, 70° west A care- 

 ful examination of this granitic rock in numerous localities leads to the con- 

 clusion 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 ossipyte ap- 

 pears a few rods higher up The rock seems to be stratified, the planes 



dipping about twenty degrees northerly The importance of this discov- 

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

 feldspars affords a strong presumption that these rocks are Eozoic, and not 

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

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

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

 XXI. pp. 135-151.) 



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

 Hampshire, pages 210, 214, 257, 258, 266, the following statement is 

 made regarding the labradorite and its associated rocks : — 



" None of the Labrador areas, whether in America or Europe, have j'et 

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

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

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

 tive. In the study of New England rocks, the labradorite aids us greatly, 

 since most geologists are prepared to accept it as indicating formations of 

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

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

 contiguous masses belong to very ancient systems 



" A few rods above [Beckytown] is an exposure of the same rocks with 

 those seen at the falls, dipping 80° S. 10° W. The strata are indicated by folia 

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



Tliere are jointed planes, also, with a dip westerly of 25° Between Norway 



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

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

 its true place with the porphyritic group. Subsequently I referred it to the 

 ' trachytic ' or Albany granite, buf a reexamination in 1875 shows that it be- 

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

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

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

 pears the first ledge of the ossipyte 



