414 



Repokt of the State Geologist. 



is often present, especially along the western border of the area in Sugar Loaf 

 and Goose pond mountains. This graphitic facies is very constant about one 

 and one-half miles south-southeast of Chester (167). The gneiss here is a 

 granular aggregate of quartz and feldspar with numerous graphite scales, and 

 with a strike of N. 25'' E. Mica is rarely present. Farther up the mountain 

 the graphite is lacking. The Hudson river slate occurs in the same field, but 

 was not found in contact with the gneiss. A fine-grained hornblendic schist 

 occupies an intermediate position between the slate and the gneiss (167d). 



The stratigraphic relations of the gneiss to the surrounding formations 

 are highly interesting. The western face of the area is very precipitous at 

 many points, especially at the southwest end. 



One and one-quarter miles east of Lawton, the Cambrian limestone crops 

 out east of the road (193). The rock is finely crystalline, very hard, and in 

 layers one to two feet thick. Weathering brings out a sub-bedding. The 

 strike is N. 10° E., and dip 20° E. or towards the gneiss. About 300 feet 

 to the east the gneiss rises steeply along a fault line. To the north of this, 

 the slate overlaps the limestone and is faulted up against the gneiss. This 

 fault line probably dies out to the north. On the western side of Sugar 

 Loaf and Goose pond mountains is a flat-bottomed valley which narrows out 

 to the south. 



The Cambrian limestone, of which there are several outcrops in this 

 depression, rests unconformably on the gneiss and is, in turn, overlaid by the 

 Hudson river slates, which form a narrow strip along the western side of the 

 valley. The limestone either thins out to the south or is faulted out. To 

 the north and east it underlies the lowlands and also extends northeastward 

 to Oxford, appearing northwest of the station. 



There are good exposures of the limestone in the valley of Seely's brook, 

 two miles southwest of Oxford. The rock is not so hard as that east of 

 Lawton, and varies considerably in the coarseness of its grain. A sub-bedding 

 is common and several of the outcrops show a brecciated structure. The 

 strike is N. 45° E., and the dip 30° E. 



The Hudson river shales appear along the road running southwest 

 from Oxford along the valley of Seely's brook (203). They are black or 

 brownish Mack shales which, in their upper portion, contain thin quartzose 

 layers. At one Locality along the road (203) fossils are not uncommon. The 

 most abundant are Orthis testvdi n<t rut and crinoid stems, also fragmentary 

 bryozoans. The slate is considerably' broken and the quartzose layers which 

 dip 30° E. of S. are traversed by numerous slit-like cracks, which are approxi- 



