368 aEOLOGY OF THE I^^ARRAGANSETT BASm. 



of its position on the western side of a syncline. It ignores tlie fact that 

 a smaller ridge immediately toward the east shows much steej^er and 

 sometimes somewhat western dips^ and suggests instead that these more 

 vertical dips arise in consequence of the very inflexible character of this 

 coarse conglomerate, even under conditions of strong folding, causing the 

 tilting of large masses at unusual angles. The thickness of conglomerate 

 forming the lower, more eastern, of these ridges is considered entirely 

 inadequate for correlation with the much greater mass of conglomerate 

 forming the larger, more western, ridge, which is so great as not to admit of 

 the interpretation of the lower ridge as foi-ming a possible repetition of the 

 higher one, owing to the intervening synclinal structure in which both are 

 involved. 



The thickness of conglomerate forming the Hanging Rock ridge is 

 considered entirely inadequate for correlation with the much greater con- 

 glomerate section east of the ridge as opposite sides of the same anticline, 

 the Hanging Rock ridge forming the western side, and the field exposures 

 the eastern side. For this reason the Hanging Rock ridge is considered 

 the eastern side of a great syBcline, with the Purgatory-Paradise ridge as 

 the western side. The region east of the Hanging Rock ridge is considered 

 as anticlinal in structure, with the Hanging Rock ridge as the western side 

 of the anticline and the Sakonnet River western shore conglomerate as 

 the eastern side. This interpretation also ignores the eastern dips of the 

 conglomerate exposures immediately east of the northern half of the Hang- 

 ing Rock ridge, considering these again as mere evidences of the results 

 possible when unusually hard rocks are subjected to processes of folding 

 in conjunction with great masses of much softer underlying shales. This 

 interpretation would give approximately the same thickness to the coarse 

 conglomerates involved in the (1) two western Paradise ridges west of the 

 reservoir, (2) the exposures at the Hanging Rock ridge and those imme- 

 diately eastward, and (3) the western shore conglomerates along the 

 Sakonnet River. 



Southward pitch of the great Paradise-Hanging Rock syncline. ^AcCCptiug this interpreta- 

 tion, the Paradise region between the western Paradise ridge and the Hang- 

 ing Rock ridge is to be considered as a great syncline. The conglomerate 

 exposed along the roadside about a mile southwest of Black Point is con- 

 sidered the most northern exposure of this syncline. Its elevation is about 



