A. Winchell 07i the Taconic Question. 349 
New York] through which the Taconic rocks jDass are West- 
chester, Cohimbia, RensseLaer and Washington; and, after pass- 
ing out of the state, they are found stretching through the whole 
length of Vermont, and into Canada, as far north as Quebec. 
It is however, in Massachusetts, in the county of Berkshire, that 
we find the most satisfactory exhibition of the rocks. They 
form a belt whose width is not far from fifteen miles, along the 
whole western border, and which extends clearly to the western 
base of the Taconic range. The greatest breadth therefore, as 
will be seen,, by an inspection of any map of this section of 
country, is wider upon the eastern than ujDon the western side 
of this range. In Vermont, they range along the upper mem- 
bers of the Champlain group, and thus become connected with 
the Second District." [p. 136]. 
The " Black slate " " extends as far as St. Albans in Ver- 
mont." The " Taconic slate, with its subordinate beds, occupies 
almost the whole of Columbia, Rensselaer and Washington 
counties." The Sparry limestone passes through Ancram, 
Hillsdale, New Lebanon, Canaan, Berlin, Petersburgh, Hoosic, 
White Creek, the west part of Arlington, [Vt], and onwards 
in the same range north, through the eastern townships of 
Canada East." ^ The magnesian slate forms the highest moun- 
tains in the Taconic range, which "extends along the western 
border of Massachusetts and through Vermont." 
In 1846, the occurrence of Taconic rocks was announced in 
Rhode Island, Maine and Michigan." - 
In 1855, Dr. Emmons announced that the Taconic system of 
rocks had "been observed through the whole length of the 
states from northeast to southwest * * * The most 
northeasterly point at which I have observed this system is at 
the Fox islands, off the coast of Mame, but I have good reason 
to suspect its existence in Newfoundland. If so, it ranks among 
the most persistent geological formations of the country."^ 
It is not necessary to follow Dr. Emmons' later identification 
of the Taconic in North Carolina and otiicr I'egions.* 
1 Agricultural Rep., 74. 
2 Report on Agriculture, pp. 90 — loi. 
^ American Geology, pt. II, pp. 5 and 6. 
* Geological Report of the Midland counties of North Carolina, Raleigh, 
1856, 8vo. 
