TACONIC SYSTEM. 
427 
the summit of the mountain over which the road to Pittsfield passes. Pyrites, crystallized in 
cubes, are not uncommon in the talcy slate. Quartz also abounds, and this contains much 
pyrites, either pure or partially decomposed, and resembles in some degree the gold ores of 
North-Carolina and Virginia. The quartz does not seem to form regular veins, but is dis¬ 
seminated in masses and nests through the rock. Some of the talcy slate contains plumbago 
so abundantly as a coloring material, that it will mark like black-lead. The slate is variable 
in its aspect, but is all unctuous and variously colored, bluish, brown, black, green and red. 
The rocks, from the springs to the summit of the mountain, all dip to the eastward at a high 
angle. 
About one and a half miles north of the springs, a locality of talcose rock, interlaminated 
with limestone, was examined. The talcose rock abounded in pyrites, and these were under¬ 
going constant decomposition, forming sulphate of iron and of lime, and the rocks were 
covered with a reddish and yellowish incrustation. The earth from this place has been used 
in the vicinity for dyeing. An excavation had been made here, probably in search of the 
precious metals. The undecomposed talcy rock was filled with cubic cavities, in which 
crystals of pyrites had once been imbedded. Limestone was observed in abundance lower 
down the hill to the west, and was supposed to underlie the talcy slate and limestone. Far¬ 
ther south towards the springs, the same limestone was observed; and on the top of the hill, 
the talcose slaty limestone like that at the springs. Both dip to the eastward. The order 
of superposition, as near as was ascertained, was as follows : 
1. Talcy slate of Hancock mountain. 
2. Talcy slaty limestone like that at the springs. 
3. Talcy slate and limestone. 
4. Blue and grey limestones, down to the valley. 
Between the springs and the Shaker village, the rock, where seen in place, was the grey 
limestone, more or less intersected by veins of quartz; and between that village and New- 
Lebanon village, the same rock was observed. 
Limestone skirts the Lebanon valley, two and a half miles south from the springs on its 
west side. At that distance, the alluvial and quaternary deposits of the valley cease, and the 
stream from the south flows over a steep escarpment of the grey limestone, which is fre¬ 
quently highly impregnated with chlorite. The limestone here occupies the whole breadth of 
the valley, from the West mountain to the east or Hancock mountain, but retains the same 
easterly dip. 
Not far south of this point is Whiting’s pond, a fine sheet of pure deep water. At its 
outlet, blue, red and purple slates were seen, some of them much contorted, and all of them 
were more or less talcy, and unctuous to the touch. The valley of the outlet cuts down 
through all the ranges of hills to the west; and a gorge is also seen across Hancock moun¬ 
tain to the east, so that this transverse valley is nearly parallel to that of Lebanon creek ; 
and a dislocation of the strata at this place, where a fracture of the mountain seems to have 
been made, is probable. 
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