NEW  ENGLAND.  585 
SECTION  7.    WESTERN  NEW  ENGLAND  (GENERAL). 
SUMMARY  OF  LITERATURE. 
Dana,85  in  1877,  maintains  that  the  conformable  succession  in  Berk- 
shire County,  Mass.,  and  in  Vermont  are  the  same,  being  (1)  lime- 
stones and  schists;  (2)  quartzites  and  schists;  (3)  quartzites  and  lime- 
stones; all  conformable.  The  Taconic  Range  of  Berkshire  is  prob- 
ably Upper  Trenton  or  Hudson  River  or  Cincinnati.  There  are  fre- 
quent abrupt  transitions  between  the  quartzite  and  the  gneiss,  which 
are  believed  to  represent  transitions  from  sand  deposits  to  mud  de- 
posits in  the  old  seas. 
Hitchcock  (C.  H.),8G  in  1879,  describes  the  Atlantic  system  as  in- 
cluding the  highlands  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  between  Newfoundland 
and  the  Carolinas,  comprising  the  Terranovan,  confined  to  Newfound- 
land and  Nova  Scotia;  the  Montalban,  with  Green  Mountain  branch, 
in  which  are  the  White  Mountains,  and  the  Carolina,  or  Southern, 
which  culminates  in  the  Black  Mountains.  The  rocks  of  the  system 
were  deposited  in  a  Laurentian  basin,  with  the  Adirondacks  on  the 
west  and  the  ancient  gneisses  of  eastern  Massachusetts  on  the  east. 
Dana,87  in  1880,  finds  that  the  western  and  eastern  halves  of  the 
Green  Mountain  area  are  one  orological  system,  the  rocks  being  simi- 
lar, and  all  are  of  Lower  Silurian  age.  With  these  belongs  a  part 
of  the  central  mountain  section.  In  view  of  these  various  considera- 
tions the  evidence,  although  not  yet  beyond  question,  is  manifestly 
strong  for  embracing  the  whole  region  between  the  Connecticut  and 
the  Hudson  (and  to  an  unascertained  distance  beyond)  within  the 
limits  of  the  Green  Mountain  synclinorium. 
Dana,88  in  1881,  finds  that  the  schistose  rocks  constituting  the  Ta- 
conic Range  grade,  from  north  to  south,  from  feebly  crystalline  ar- 
gillite  and  hydromica  schist  to  coarse-grained  mica  schist,  garnetifer- 
ous  and  staurolitic.  The  eastern  and  western  limestone  belts  blend 
with  each  other  through  the  low  regions,  cross  the  Taconic  line,  and 
prove  to  be  one  formation.  The  limestone  passes  underneath  the 
schist  of  the  Taconic  Range  and  outcrops  on  its  east  and  west  sides  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  syncline.  The  limestones  that  constitute  the 
lower  part  of  the  Taconic  system  contain  fossils  which  show  it  to  be 
Lower  Silurian;  hence  the  schists  of  the  Taconic  are  Inter  than  Silu- 
rian age  and  probably  belong  to  the  Hudson  River.  The  structure 
of  the  range  is  a  compound  syncline.  Mount  Washington  is  a  syn- 
cline of  the  same  kind,  which  dies  out  to  the  south  with  a  multiplica- 
tion of  small  subordinate  flexures. 
Hitchcock  (C.  H.),89  in  L884,  describes  a  number  of  geological 
sections  across  New   Hampshire   and    Vermont,   and   correlates   the 
