1583.] 421 [Wadsworth. 



out the things to send to Europe," is entirely consistent with my 

 statement. 1 However, since Zirkel denies the taking of hand 

 specimens to Germany, I will cheerfully retract my former state- 

 ment and believe that Mr. King misunderstood me when he re- 

 peatedly told me that Zirkel had the missing hand specimens I 

 was inquiring about. 



The statements that the augite-andesites are younger than the 

 rhyolites, etc., appeared in volume VI. as Zirkel's own, and 

 for them he is to be held responsible until they are denied by 

 him, especially since his classification and arrangement of the 

 rocks was based on such statements as these. However, the ad- 

 missions of himself with those of King clearly show that the clas- 

 sification came from Mr. King and his colleagues. 



Zirkel now claims (Z. 113) to have seen in 1875 one specimen of 

 the Red Creek schist containing excellent large crystals of cyan- 

 ite, but it seems they shrunk to minute ones while Mr. King 

 was at work upon them, and finally had disappeared in 1878. (W. 

 251, 252.) In 1882 they seem to have reappeared in the form of 

 quartz, since Dr. Merrill found an abundance of that mineral of 

 which Zirkel makes no mention. (M. 445, 446.) The mica from 

 the analysis is evidently a muscovite which is partially hydrated ; 

 for the character to which Dr. Merrill refers is not, as he says it 

 is, stated by Rosenbusch to be characteristic of paragonite, and it 

 is common in any micaceous mineral which has suffered alteration. 

 If we compare the analyses given by Merrill with those given by 

 Roth of mica schists from which the quartz and other minerals had 

 been removed as far as possible, it will be seen that the latter con- 

 tain 2.13, 4.81, 5.26, 2.49, 4.19, and 2.48 % of water. I claim that 

 if Dr. Merrill's process was resorted to, almost every mica schist 

 in New England would be found to be hydrous. Although tech- 

 nically he may have gained his point, I maintain from the experi- 

 ence obtained in passing a good many years in regions abounding 

 in mica schists that the rock in question is nothing but an ordinary 

 mica schist and is destitute of the physical characteristics, except 

 color, which belong to the rocks to which the term hydrous mica 

 schist pertains. That Zirkel was mistaken in his determination 

 of this rock as a paragonite schist in which he observed all the 

 characters of the St. Gothard rock, except microscopic disthene, I 



i Berichte Verhandl. k. sachs. Gesells. Wissen., Leipzig, 1877, n, 156. 



