MAINE. 
61 
ing from the Kennebec River, between Bingham and Dead rivers, northeastward to 
the sources of the Mattawamkeag River. The rocks are probably of early Paleozoic 
age.« The portion of this belt now yielding commercial slate lies south of the cen- 
tral granitic area of the State. The general structure of this belt is unknown. At 
North Blanchard on the west the strike of the Redding is N. 25°-39° E., dip 80° ESE. 
Near Blanchard and the Piscataquis River the strike is N. 55°-60° E., and the dip, 
40 feet below the surface, is south-southeast at about 80°; but at the top, owing 
either to the glacier, which moved here S. 20°-40° E., or else to the beginning of an 
anticline, the dip curves over to the north-northwest. Within 1 J miles southwest of 
Monson the strike is N. 60° E., dip 90°. At Monson the strike is N. 47°-54° E., dip 
80° SE; but at Brownville, 20 miles east of Monson, the strike is N. 78° E., dip 75° 
NNW. As the grain is horizontal at Brownville and at points 3J miles west-south- 
west and 1J miles southwest of Monson, a nearly vertical pitch may be assumed for 
the folds, but it is singular that the jointing in the quartzite beds should not furnish 
any clue to this pitch. 
Fig. 4.— Map of slate region in Maine. From Post-route map. The chief quarrying centers are shown 
by crossed hammers. 
Monson.— -In 1 904 three quarries were in full operation in the town of Monson. The 
Monson Pond quarry of the Monson Maine Slate Company; the newly opened one 
of the Maine Slate Company, of Monson, about 3J miles west-southwest of the village; 
and the West Monson quarry, about H miles southwest of it, operated by the Mon- 
son Consolidated Slate Company. 
At the Monson Pond quarry the following series is exposed: 15 beds of slate, 
measuring altogether from 79 feet to 93 feet 6 inches, alternating with 15 beds of 
dark gray or black quartzite ("hards"), measuring altogether from 48 feet 5 inches 
to 49 feet 5 inches, both slate and quartzite amounting to from about 127 to about 
142 feet. The deposit has been prospected for 200 feet farther southeast, but the 
C. H., The geology of northern New England, 1886; also his Preliminary Kept 
.. Maine, including geological map of northern Maine.pt. 1, 1861, pp. 316, 319, and 
«See Hitchcock 
Nat. Hist, and Geol., Maine, including geological map 
Second Ann. Kept., 1862, pt. 2, pp. 280, 282,360. 
