Location and characteristics 749 



The most remarkable characteristic of this train is the nearly straight 

 course which it takes diagonally across a region of mountain ridges and 

 valleys. From Fryes Hill the train crosses Shaker Valley, then over the 

 summit of the Taconic Mountain range, then over the wider Kichmond 

 V^alley, then over the Lenox Mountain range, thinning out in the neigh- 

 borhood of the Stockbridge Bowl and in the Housatonic Valley beyond. 

 The accompanying sketch map shows the course of the Richmond train, 

 and also the distribution of the Great Barrington bowlders so far as now 

 mapped. 



Benton, who has written the most detailed description of the Rich- 

 mond trains,^ recognizes several separate lines. On his map he shows 

 two lines near Fryes Hill and four in Richmond. 



The less prominent lines are composed mainly of metamorphic lime- 

 stone and sandstone from other parts of Canaan and Lebanon range than 

 that in which the amphibolite is situated, but they are weak and poorly 

 defined, and the chief interest centers in the principal train, composed 

 of amphibolite blocks. 



The writer's study of the bowlders of this region was incidental to 

 other work and was not so thorough as could be wished. But it was 

 found that, besides the bowlder trains previously described, there is ap- 

 parently another which takes a different direction from Fryes Hill, and 

 that the bowlders composing it, although of the same rock as the Rich- 

 mond train, are very different in their appearance and condition. The 

 whole line of the newly found train has not yet been studied in detail, 

 so that the results presented are somewhat incomplete and the conclu- 

 sions in some degree tentative. 



As stated above, the Richmond train runs in a direction about south 

 40 degrees east from Fryes Hill. All the bowlders of this train are 

 sharply angular in their forms and fresh in their appearance. They 

 seem to show no weathering nor any rounding off of comers and edges, 

 but have the appearance of freshly quarried blocks. Many of them are 

 of large size, especially some of those in Shaker Valley and on the flanks 

 of Perry Peak. The one most often described is the great bowlder in a 

 pasture lot west of the road 2 miles north of Richmond station. This 

 stands about 8 feet high, 14 feet long, and 10 feet wide, and a consider 

 able part is under ground. 



Location and Characteristics of the Great Barrington Train 



The train recently found appears to begin in Shaker Valley southeast 

 of Fryes Hill on the slope east of Queechy Lake, and from this place 



■ E. R. Benton : "The Richmond bowlder trains." Bulletin Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1878, accompanied by a large detailed map. 



LII— Bull. Gbol. Soc. Am., Vol. 21, 1909 



