WIGGLESWORTH: SERPENTINES OF VERMONT, 97 
hecomes of great importance and contains the largest deposits of 
asbestos thus far discovered. 
Geology. 
The chief rock of eastern Vermont, and thus the rock in which 
the serpentine areas are found, is a mica schist. This Ues for the most 
part very highly incHned, and strikes nearly north and .south, except 
in the north where it turns in a somewhat more easterly direction. 
The attitude and composition of these schists render them particularly 
susceptible to weathering, and therefore fresh rock is rarely found. 
For this reason, the actual character of the schists is hard to determine. 
Minor variations are seen, however, in different places; sericite can 
often be determined, while garnet, chlorite, and other minerals are 
found locally. The age of these schists has not been definitely de- 
termined. In Quebec, Dresser (4) states that the serpentines are 
intrusive into sediments of Middle Ordovician age, but Richard- 
son (2) maintains that in northern Vermont the Ordovician terranes 
are not cut by the serpentines. 
The shape of all the smaller serpentine outcrops is lenticular. 
This is undoubtedly true of all the localities except those in the north 
and the large one in the towns of Dover and Xewfane. The lenses 
have their long axes parallel to the foliation of the schist, and are 
usually about four times as long as they are broad. The serpentine 
has the appearance of being concordant with the schists, but the fact 
that the latter weather more rapidly than the serpentine makes this 
relation difficult to determine. In most cases the serpentine forms a 
small hill, while the surrounding schist is covered by swampy ground. 
In one or two instances the foliation of the schist was seen to follow 
the outline of the serpentine body, which would naturally lead to the 
supposition that the schist had been forced aside to make room for the 
serpentine. 
The larger areas of the serpentine are likewise elongated in the direc- 
tion of the strike of the schist, and show other evidences of being con- 
cordant injections. They have, however, in the north been flescribed 
as batholiths, and are there certainly of batholithic proportions. In 
the asbestos region of Quebec there are thought to be two kinds of 
serpentine: one in the form of batholiths, the other in sills or sheets. 
It is possible that the large masses in northern Vermont may corre- 
spond to the batholiths. 
