STOCKBRIDGE LIMESTONE. 
157 
these two beds of limestone (the one filling the central part of the Hoosic valley, and the lateral 
or western one) really commingle at the southern extremity of Stone hill. 
Some of the difficulties relating to the continuity and identity of the several belts of lime¬ 
stone arise probably from the uplifts which form the short spurs of mountains, which, rising 
up in rather interrupted lines, create confusion by crowding the beds of limestone, or other 
masses, out of the true line of their strike. By admitting this westerly mass of limestone, 
or that on the eastern base of the Taconic range, as one distinct from the Adams range and 
that of the Hoosic valley, we shall have three parallel beds of the Stockbridge limestone. By 
reference to section 46, it will be observed that I have represented a bed or mass of limestone 
at the west base of Saddle mountain, marked 2, or Second bed of limestone. This is full 
five hundred feet thick, lies in the magnesian slate, and does not rest upon it, or rather against 
it, as has been supposed by some geologists. I suppose this rock to form the great repository 
of the Ashford, Lanesborough and Stockbridge marble. It appears on the south slope of this 
mountain ; or that slope which forms the north side of what is called the Hopper, immediately 
beneath Graylock. It strikes across the deep ravine which runs up to the Hopper, and 
appears forming a part of the next mountain south, which is a west spur from Graylock; 
and in the same direction or strike, we find the New-Ashford quarries of marble. In the 
section just referred to, I have represented upon the right of the fracture, at figure 2, curved 
strata. These curved strata form, I suppose, the valley of the Hoosic, or mainly that part 
of it on which the pleasant village of Williamstown, with its College edifices, is situated. It 
will be observed by the most careless that the strata of limestone are remarkably bent and 
contorted, forming in many instances double curves. 
In relation to the two masses, one forming the valley of the Hoosic, and contorted in this 
remarkable manner, and the mass represented as the second bed of limestone, and plunging 
into Saddle mountain, I now consider them as the same, the latter having been broken from 
the former by an uplift. We have, however, to go so much by conjecture in these questions, 
that it is rare that we can enjoy the satisfaction of being certain we have the truth. 
Again, referring once more to the contorted limestone, I am often disposed to attribute 
these flexures to other causes than lateral pressure. They appear often too much bent and 
folded upon each other, so as to look like concretionary masses ; and in some cases, these 
irregularities might be produced in the same manner as the contorted layers in clay beds; by 
deposition upon irregular surfaces, washing out the lower layers, by which those above are 
left unsupported; or by irregularities in currents, etc., by which unequal and irregular depo¬ 
sits take place. 
I will now leave this subject, perhaps without having thrown much light upon it; in hopes, 
however, that it may yet be elucidated by abler minds. 
