322 Discovery of more Native Copper in Whately, Mass. 



of the former existence of some race before unknown ! And if 

 an event deepens in interest the farther back it lies in the hoary- 

 past, how vastly in this respect do geological researches take the 

 precedence of historical ! For the chronologist can ascend the 

 stream of time only a few thousand years ; while the geologist 

 makes his starting point the commencement of chronological 

 dates, and the period of man's existence on the globe is too short 

 as yet to form even an unit by which to measure the almost im- 

 measurable past. And yet the solid strata reveal to him the his- 

 tory of those ages, so near the birth of time, with all the dis- 

 tinctness of yesterday ; and he finds the laws by which Jehovah 

 governed the universe then, engraved, Uke those given on Sinai, 

 upon tables of stone. 



Art, VIII. — Discovery of more Native Copper in the town of 

 Whately in Massachusetts, i?i the valley of Connecticut River, 

 with remarks upon its Origin ; by Prof. Edward Hitchcock, 

 LL. D. 



(Read before the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists at Albany, 



April, 1843.) 



In my Final Report on the Geology of Massachusetts, (Yol. II, 

 p. 422,) as well as in some previous publications, I have mention- 

 ed the occurence of a mass of native copper, weighing seventeen 

 ounces, in the drift of Whately, and I there express the opinion 

 that it was derived from the trap of the Connecticut valley, in 

 which, as well as in the associated sandstone, there exist veins of 

 copper ore, such as the red oxide, the green carbonate and the 

 pyritous. Bat within a few days, Dr. Bardwell of Whately has 

 shown me another specimen of the native copper weighing sixteen 

 ounces, found in drift, in such a part of that town as makes it 

 excedingly difficult to see how it could have been derived by the 

 force which accumulated the drift from any trap range ; and I 

 have been led to take a new view of the subject, which may have 

 an important bearing in an economical respect. 



In order to make intelligible the situation of these masses of 

 copper when found in the drift, I must describe the position of 

 Whately, The town extends westward from Connecticut River 

 some six miles, and its eastern half is nearly level and underlaid 



