Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/259

MASSACHUSETTS 247 cut, flow S. through Connecticut into Long Island sound; the Merrimack, which is navi- gable for sloops to Haverhill, 18 m. from its mouth, flows through the K E. corner, and supplies immense water power to Lowell, Law- rence, and other manufacturing centres. The falls in the Connecticut afford valuable water power. The other principal streams are the Nashua, Taunton, Concord, Blackstone, and Charles. It contains several small lakes. The surface of the state is greatly diversified. The extreme west is mountainous, having two ranges of the Green mountains, the Taghkan- nic or Taconic and Hoosac ridges, which run nearly parallel to each other and into Connec- ticut. Saddle mountain in the 1ST. W. corner is 3,600 ft. high, and Mt. Washington in the S. W. corner 2,624 ft. Further E. is the beauti- ful and fertile valley of the Connecticut. In this section are several elevations, detached members of the White mountain system, the highest peaks of which are Mt. Tom (about 1,300 ft.) on the W., and Mt. Holyoke (1,120 ft.) near Northampton, on the E. bank of the Connecticut river, and Wachusett moun- tain (2,018 ft.) K of the middle of the state. The east and northeast are hilly and broken, and the southeast generally low and sandy. Massachusetts is eminently a region of meta- morphic rocks. Those in the E. part of the state especially are largely overspread with the sands, gravel, and bowlders of the drift formation ; and the long point of land making the S. E. extremity of the state (see CAPE COD) is so covered with these loose materials, that the rocky beds beneath are entirely concealed. Syenite and granite prevail along the coast, and extensive quarries of these rocks are worked at Quincy, Cape Ann, and other points. Around Boston is a formation of coarse conglomer- ates and argillaceous slates of obscure age on account of the metamorphic action to which they have been subjected. At Braintree, near Quincy, the slates contain trilobites, but gen- erally no fossils have been met with in these rocks. The fossils would seem to refer the slates to the lower Silurian period. These obscure formations are traced in an irregular belt toward Providence, and near the Rhode Island line they are connected with coal-bear- ing strata, referable, it is supposed, to the true carboniferous epoch. In many localities in Bristol and Plymouth counties these strata contain beds of anthracite, some of which, as at Mansfield, have been worked for many years ; but they are of little or no value, the coal always being much crushed, and the beds very irregular in their production. Gneiss and talcose and mica slates in broad belts traverse the state from N. to S. from the E. portion to the waters of the Housatonic in Berkshire. Among these rocks are interspersed a few beds of metamorphic limestone, but no minerals or ores of value. Along the Connecticut river valley, in the triassic or new red sandstone formation, known as the Connecticut valley area, are found very extensive fossil footprints, which from their resemblance to the feet of birds are first called ornithichnites ; but they have since been found by Prof. Edward Hitch- cock, who gave the name, to be not only the tracks of birds but of other animals. Some of them indicate that they were made by animals of gigantic size. (See FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS.) Trap rocks are associated with it, and near the contact of the sandstone and trap, or of the sandstone and the gneiss, are found veins of metallic ores, as of lead, copper, and zinc, none of which, however, have repaid the money spent in their exploration. The prin- cipal localities of these ores are at Southamp- ton, Leverett, Montague, Whately, and a few other towns. The high lands which traverse the state from N. to S., dividing the waters that flow into the Connecticut from those of the Housatonic, and called the Hoosac moun- tains, are chiefly of gneiss and mica slate. In Middlefield a belt of talcose slate, continued further N. in the mica slate region, reaches the gneiss ; and here are developed in near prox- imity beds of limestone, steatite, and serpen- tine. The towns along the Housatonic and on the same range extending to the N. border of the state are in the region of the altered Si- lurian sandstones and calcareous formations. This is the most important mineral district of the state, numerous beds of iron ore having been worked for many years, and the quartz rocks affording in their disintegrated beds bodies of glass sand of unusual purity. In 1874 deposits specially rich in silver, and con- taining also lead and gold, were discovered in Essex co., near Newburyport, where mining operations have been begun. In the valleys, particularly of the Housatonic and Connecti- cut, the soil is rich and productive, but a large portion of the more elevated lands and the long sandy coast do not repay the husband- man. The climate near the coast is very va- riable, with prevailing E. winds, especially in spring. The mean annual temperature is about 48 ; spring, 43 ; summer, 71 ; autumn, 51 ; winter, 21. The annual rainfall is about 55 inches. In the interior it is more equable, and in the mountainous districts very severe in winter. Of the total area of the state, somewhat less than one half is improved. According to the census of 1870, there were 26,500 farms, of which 1,129 contained be- tween 3 and 10 acres each, 2,532 between 10 and 20, 8,381 between 20 and 50, 8,727 be- tween 50 and 100, 5,643 between 100 and 500, and 40 between 500 and 1,000. The num- ber of acres of improved land on farms was 1,736,221; woodland, 706,714; other unim- proved, 287,348. The cash value of farms was $116,432,784 ; of farming implements and machinery, $5,000,879; total amount of wages paid during the year, including value of board, $5,821,032 ; total estimated value of all farm productions, including betterments and additions to stock, $32,192,378 ; of or-