340 Dewey on Geology of Williamstozon, ^c» 



tbe east and northeast, from ten to forty degrees. On the 

 Bouthwest mountain of Saddle, the strata are bare to the sum- 

 mit for a considerable distaace, and are very fine grained mica 

 slate, having somewhat the appearance of a soapstone slate. 

 By this name they are called in Mr. Eaton's Index to Geology. 

 Some of the rocks appear to be talcose. I have been able, 

 however, to detect but a very minute quantity of magnesia in 

 any specimens I have tried, though I obtained a considerable 

 proportion of alumine. The higher hills of the Taconick 

 range are coniposed principally of a similar slate, lying in the 

 same direction, and with similar inclination ; but it appears to 

 have passed still farther from mica slate. At the northwest 

 corner of the state, which is near the foot of the ridge in this 

 place, the rock is very similar to some of that on the south- 

 west mountain mentioned above. About a mile northwest of 

 this corner, the rocks are cleft in several places, and in one, to 

 such a depth, that the snow and ice remain here through the 

 year. The Snow Hole (M) is about thirty feet long, and nearly 

 as deep at the east end, ascends to the west, or towards the 

 summit of the ridge, and is from ten to twenty feet wide. 

 When I visited it in June, the snow was six feet deep on ice 

 of unknown depth. The rock is here passing into argillaceous 

 slate ; and in many places it becomes argillaceous and chlorite 

 slate. For the other rock, you hare, I believe, proposed the 

 name talcose slate. 



3. Quartz. Though quartz is scattered through all the pre- 

 ceding rock in masses of different sizes, it is found in great 

 quantity on the northeast part of Saddle Mountain, 300 or 

 400 feet above the college, and thence to the Hoosack along 

 the side of the hill (L.) It is granular, often white and trans- 

 lucent, and often coloured with oxyd of iron. It forms Stone 

 Hill, (N) a mile southwest of the college, on the vertex of 

 which is argillaceous slate. This hill slopes to West Brook, 

 where quartz often forms perpendicular banks from 50 to 100 

 feet high. Here also argillaceous slate rests on the quartz, as 

 well as on the vertex, and on the east side of Stone Hill. 

 Qjuartz appears again on the opposite side of West Brook, but 

 further north, on a hill connected with the Taconick range. 



