206 Geology^ (^c. of the Connecticut. 



9. Vein of Pyritous Copper and Green Carbonate of Copptt-j 



at Cheshire, 



In greenstone and associated with sulphate of barytes, 

 quartz, carbonate of lime and sandstone. (Silliman m 

 Cleaveland's Mineralog)^, Vol. 2, p. 559.) 



10. Mine of the Red Oxide of Copper, Green Carbonate of 



Copper, <^c. Granby. 



This is better known by the name of Simsbury Mines al- 

 though it occurs within the boundaries of Granby. It was 

 formerly wrought, but being at length abandoned, its shafts 

 and galleries were converted into a state's prison. The 

 mineralogist who explores this spot, must here contemplate 

 the painful spectacle ofalmost every variety of guilt and crime. 

 Sixty or seventy whites, mulattoes and negroes, scarcely 

 distinguishable through filth, from one another, are here com- 

 pelled by the point of the bayonet to labour at the anvil ; 

 while we read in their sullen and ghastly countenances, the 

 inward workings of hearts rendered desperate by crime 

 and punishment. As we descend into the shaft we observe 

 the offensive recesses in the rocks, where these prisoners 

 were formerly confined during the night. But only a few 

 of the most refractory are now compelled to sleep in these 

 damp and dismal dungeons; the government of Connecti- 

 cut being satisfied that this kind of rigor served rather to 

 harden than to reform the criminal. About seventy feet be- 

 low the surface, the conductor pointed out to me a bolt 

 driven into a wet rock, where, recently, one of the prison- 

 ers had been fastened for a week or fortnight, as an extra 

 punishment for peculiar obstinacy; and where he lay, I saw 

 scattered, the leaves of a bible, which, in his desperation he 

 bad torn in pieces: — thus spurning alike the laws of God 

 and man ! 



If we judge from the present appearance of this excava- 

 tion the original vein of ore must have been extremely ir- 

 jregular, forming bellies and twitches. It passes through the 

 greenstone and enters the red and gray micaceous sand- 

 stone of the coal formation, which underlies the greenstone. 

 All the varieties of ore I saw at the place were the red ox- 



