Gneiss. 



19 



large proportion of the better class of buildings in the extensive por- 

 tion <of the central part of the State where this rock prevails, are un- 

 derpinned by wrought blocks of it. Its fissile character also renders 

 it an excellent material for common stone walls and nagging stones, 

 The same property enables the quarry-man to split out layers of it of 

 almost any size, and only a few inches in thickness ; and their surface 

 is generally so even, as to require but little dressing. Hence it is 

 very common to see such large stones of this description in front of 

 very many of our churches and other public buildings. 



In Europe gneiss seems to have been applied to few useful pur- 

 poses. One of the latest geological writers in great Britain, says, 

 that " this schistose (slaty) body serves no particular purpose in the 

 arts of life."* Dr. Maculloch however mentions that the micaceous 

 varieties are employed in building and sometimes for roofing.f This 

 rock appears to be more perfectly developed in our own country than 

 in Europe. There it seems chiefly to consist of the granite variety, 

 or of that variety not uncommon here, in which the layers are so 

 contorted and irregular as to prevent its splitting into parallel planes. 



The western part of Worcester County, and the eastern parts of 

 Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties, afford the best quar- 

 ries of gneiss. That branch of the Worcester range extending into 

 Middlesex County, and the range in Berkshire County, do not fur- 

 nish so good specimens for architecture, though by no means devoid 

 of interest in this respect. 



The quarries of gneiss that are most extensively wrought, and fur- 

 nish the best stone, are situated in the following towns : Wilbraham, 

 Pelham, Monson, Montague, Dudley, Millbury, Westborough, Boyls- 

 ton, and Uxbridge. Much of the stone at these quarries can hardly 

 be distinguished from granite, even by the geologist. The Millbury 

 gneiss, for instance, is very much used in Worcester, and does not 

 there present any appearance of stratification, and very little of a 

 slaty structure : while the granite, that is quarried in the east part of 

 Worcester, is distinctly stratified ; and would probably be called gneiss 

 by most persons, rather than the Millbury rock. 



At these gneiss quarries it is easy to obtain blocks from ten to 

 twenty feet long, which are only a few inches thick. At Dudley, I 

 was told that narrow slabs of this rock, such as would answer for 

 posts, or side walks, could be split out, and delivered in the centre of 

 the town, for four cents per foot. 



Ure's Geology, p. 100. t Maculloch's System of Geology, Vol 2, p. 155. 



