206 Geology, Mineralogy, Scenery, Se. 
Granite and Gneiss. 
Nearer to Goshen than to Litchfield we cross a ledge of 
sranite—but itis immediately succeeded by gneiss. 
Goshen is a pretty village, with a neat church and a few 
houses in the centre, but it is principally in scattered farm- 
houses. In passing on from Goshen into the corner of 
Cornwall and to Canaan, the country becomes very hilly, 
and we cross great ledges of gneiss, often abounding with 
veins of quartz. On the road I saw two large loose masses of 
dolomite and quartz, with tremolite. When we are about leav- 
ing Goshen we enter a great defile in the mountain—vast 
ledges of gneiss are on both sides, forming entire mountains; 
it is in fact, a winding valley, and as far as the eye can stretch 
to the North, mountains rise behind mountains, 
“¢ Hills peep o’er hills and Alps on Alps arise,” 
tll they die away in the distant horizon. 
A valley among’ the mountains. 
f arrived, just at night fall, at Hunt’s tavern, a much fre- 
quented and very comfortable house, situated in a part of 
the same valley which I have already mentioned, on the 
banks of a rivulet, called the Hollenbeck. In this secluded 
spot, in the midst @# mountains, I tooked for an evening of 
complete retirement, and intended to proceed with Heh pic- 
furesque and ceological sketch of the country. 
But, I soon found myself surrounded by acquaintances, 
some of them old friends of my childhood ; some were trav- 
elling South and some North, and this focus brought us to- 
gether from remote and opposite quarters, to pass a social 
evening. 
So an from the ocean, and in the midst of Swiss land- 
scapes, who would have expected to hear the solemn still- 
ness of these vallies, disturbed by naval songs! A plain 
man, seated in the piazza of the house, with a a voice strong 
and deep-toned, but clear and melodious, beguiled his eve- 
ning hours, by singing the exploits of the American navy ;— 
the verse was more remarkable for minuteness of detail, 
than for beauty of versification ; but this performer attract- 
