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STRUCTURE OF THE MOUNT WASHINGTON MASS.
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through which runs the Central New England and Western Railroad. On the northwest Mt. Washington is merged into the narrow ridge of the Taconics, which extends northward into Vermont. The name Mt. Washington, however, applies properly to all of the range lying south of the South Egremont-Hillsdale turnpike. The regular elliptical contour of the mass is broken on the northeast by two deep embayments, the eastern one containing Fenton Brook, and the western, which is knee-shaped, being occupied by Sky Farm Brook. The regularity of contour is further interrupted by an outjutting spur on the west side, known as Cook's Hill. South of the topographical break which limits the mountain in the neighborhood of Ore Hill, the range of the Taconics pursues a more interrupted course, the hills becoming smaller and spreading out considerably.

Previous Work within the Area.—As the aim of this paper is mainly to deal with the problem of mountain structure, no mention will be made of the part which the area has played in the "Taconic Controversy," except as structural facts may be brought out by it. The boundary between the basement limestone and the schistose rock of the mountain was roughly located by Hitchcock[1] for the northern portion, and by Percival[2] for all but the extreme northern portion of the mountain. The former gives (Plate 55 E of the work cited) a section across Mt. Washington, in which the schist and limestone of the east base of Mt. Everett are shown dipping at a steep angle east. Mather[3] gives two sections across the Taconic Range in the vicinity of Mt. Washinton. One of these (loc. cit. Pl. XIV, Fig. 1) is from Hillsdale, N. Y. to Egremont, Mass., and passes a little to the north of Mt. Washington; the other (Pl. XVI, Fig. 3) is from Hudson, N. Y., to the southwest corner of Canaan, Ct. The latter crosses the mountain in a northwest-southeast direction and exhibits a synclinal structure.[4]

  1. ↑ Geol. of Mass., Edward Hitchcock, Amherst and Northampton, 1841, Frontispiece Map.
  2. ↑ Rept. on the Geol. of the State of Connecticut, J. H. Percival, New Haven, 1842, Frontispiece Map.
  3. ↑ Natural History of New York, pt. iv. Geology, pt. i. 1845.
  4. ↑ In his list of dip and strike observations Mather includes several from the Mt. Washington area (pp. 612-613).
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