TACONIC SLATE AT BELFAST AND CAMDEN. 
97 
At Belfast, upon Penobscot bay, the same rock occurs, but much more disturbed than 
at points intervening between Waterville and Belfast; and it is for this reason that the 
geological position of these rocks is still doubtful. They may be talcose slates of the 
primary schists or they may be magnesian slates altered by subterranean and other 
forces, so as to disguise their true character. There is still another difficulty in deter¬ 
mining satisfactorily the position of the rocks at this place : it is their concealment by 
drift. We find exposed at a certain place, for example, a small portion of a mass which 
contains garnet, hornblende, etc.: it is, so far as can be determined, a primary schist. At 
the distance, however, of a quarter or half a mile, another rock is partially exposed, which 
is a magnesian slate, without garnets, hornblende, or other of the essential characters of 
the talcose slate just alluded to. In these cases, the great difficulty is the concealment of 
the relations of the two rocks by soil and drift. Now in this and some other cases, the 
doctrine I am disposed to maintain is that different rocks, differing as it regards age, but 
agreeing in respect to lithological character, may be formed in proximity; but of this I 
shall speak hereafter. 
The coarse schists at Belfast abound in andalusite in very perfect crystals. They may 
be found upon the beach about half a mile north of the village. They are reddish, and 
more like foreign andalusite than any I have seen. 
Not finding the Taconic rocks sufficiently well exposed or developed at Belfast, I pro¬ 
ceeded to Camden. I had been informed that limestone was one of the principal rocks at 
this place, a circumstance which was deemed of sufficient importance to authorize an 
examination. 
In the rocks of Camden, I found much to support and sustain the views I had previously 
formed of the independent existence of a system of rocks above the Primary schists, and 
below the Silurian system. That the relations of the rocks at this place may be under¬ 
stood, I have introduced a section which embraces the entire series in the order they occur. 
It crosses a tongue of land intervening between the harbor at the village of Camden, and 
a small bay or harbor formed by Goose river. By this section, I am able to refer at once 
to the rocks and their position. 
Fier. 14. 
NORTH. SOUTH 
a. Wrinkled magnesian slate, b. Limestone, c. Trap dyke. d. Hard siliceous slate, e. Granitic vein. f Fine 
slate, g. Coarse slate, with imperfect staurotide. h. First mass of granular quartz, i. Slaty contorted quartz, 
passing into a rock containing macles. K. Fine granular quartz. 1. Slate with macles. n. Granular quartz. 
G. Goose river. F. Fracture and uplift, m. Magnesian slate. 
[Agricultural Report.] 13 
