A. Wing's Discoveries in Vermont Geology. 417 



group. "But this narrow valley is a very disturbed region, 

 and the limestone seems to be greatly compressed between the 

 quartzyte belt on the east and the slate belt on the west (sep- 

 arating it from West Eutland valley)." "The region was stud- 

 ied farther south in the valley as well as to the north, to ascer- 

 Ktiti what rocks occurred, and the conclusion was that nearly 

 all the formations found in other places here occur; that is, the 

 older on the east against the quartzyte (No. 1), and then the 

 others in succession, with the Tr date bound- 



ing the limestone on the west, while the slate is No. 8 or the 

 Hudson River slate." No fossils were found in it 

 10. Historical Note. 

 The preceding notes have been taken chiefly from the letter from 

 Mr. Wing to me dated August 9, 1872. They show that his view, 

 that there are Hudson River slates in the Eolian limestone region, 

 antedates my own ; for my paper on the subject was not published 

 until 1873, and there had been no communication between us before 

 then on the subject, or on any subject. Moreover, my own views 

 as to the age of the Berkshire" rocks were l.ased i-hieny", as I stated, 

 On Mr. Wing's discoveries in Vermont. I cite the following from 

 a letter to me, of May 8, 1875, written soon after he had first seen 

 my paper on the subject— a letter never, however, received by me 

 until his papers were recently put into my hands. It shows that 

 -ions date as far back as 1866. 



"When, in 1866, the Tr I and other Tren- 



ton fossils were found first in Sudbury, underlying on the wesl 

 side the great central mass of slate running south from Wey- 



i-:-., 



fossils were found first in Sudbury, underlying on the west 

 the great central mass of slate running south from W 

 ge through the State, embracing the " Talcoid schists " 



and Manchester Mountains, Mount Anthony in 



ngton, and also Graylock in Massachusetts, I reached the 

 conclusion at once tha ; - Vermont 



and Southwestern New England were neither of the Quebec 

 group, nor Taconic, but of the age of the Hudson River slate. 

 In the progress of my investigations, I assumed, and. I often 

 expressed in correspondence with M Ube 'Eolian 



limestone' of the Vermont Geological Report embraced not 

 only the Trenton and Hudson River beds, but all the formations 

 of the Lower Silurian as well, and even limestones and dolomites 

 °f the Red Sand-rock series. I was wrong at first in assuming 

 that these same slates overlying the Trenton and Chazy lime- 

 stones along this central belt extended also west to the Hudson 

 Eiver and were all of the same age. For the Primordial fossils 

 recently collected at Bald Mountain, Washington Co., and east 

 of Troy, New York (both of which places l 

 modified my view as to the western extent of the Hudson River 

 slates. But they have not weakened my belief in their existence 

 m Southwestern Vermont and New England." 



