Mineral Industries and Geology of Certain Areas - Vermont Agency ...

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28 REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. without, together with the great modifications of structure and position of strata within, that disguised their true character and relationship, made the order and age of the rocks such a hard problem. Time, diligence, ability were needed. And we have seen how Mr. Wing solved it. It was to him a ten-years' problerri. Mr. Wing had been slow to make know-n his researches, wishing apparently to put his theory beyond any possible overthrow by adverse criticism. Typical localities were re-examined that every weak point might be strengthened. He at length was clear in his own conclusions. He now wished thegeological world to share with him in the results of his labors. It was a rare day to Mr. Wing when he secured the promise from Professor J. D. Dana to look into the facts, the basis of his theory. By arrangement a party consisting of Professors Dana, Genth, Prime and Blake came together on July 9, 1875, at Great Barrington, Mass. A friend acquainted with the facts writes: "It was the climax in his life when Mr. Wing met Professor Dana and a party of geologists at Great Barrington, Mass., and there began to unfold his theory, verifying each position as they traveled through the Berkshire hills and Hoosac valley, and made their way north, traversing the entire length of his native State, crossing and recrossing the Green mountain range, by which time his theory had given place to a deep conviction that it was correct. To Mr. Wing this, without doubt, was a moment of great triumph, when the great importance of his contribution to science was thus recognized by the highest authority in America—perhaps the highest in the world." It is not to be asserted that all obscurities of the region, such as the relations of the lower to the upper Potsdarn, the slates at the middle and southern part of the State, the exact age of the most disturbed and metamorphosed strata near the quartzyte, have been fully removed. But in the main what was to be done had been done, and Mr. \Ving made good his early assertion, REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. 29 "That all the rocks in Addison, Rutland and Bennington counties between the great break on the west and the quartzyte on the east were Lower Silurian." The minor facts he could put over for later time, or leave indeed to others who should catch enthusiasm from the work and the success of the master. It would have been fortunate for science if Mr. Wing could have written out his observations and discoveries. This work he fully intended to do. But he found so much in the field that, as he thought still demanded his attention, the writing was put off. He was ever finding his delight, as well as his reward, in his discoveries; so he neared his bound without having received personally the appreciative acknowledgment his fellowworkers would have gladly accorded him. The work in the field of the season of 1875 had been severe and exhausting to him, now advancing in age, and he retired to Whiting, Vt., to accept the ministries of a sister and her family. Here this stalwart man, with large frame and great heart, with the broad intellectual range of the mature man, and yet with the simplicity of a child, of great good nature and incapable of resentment, overflowing with enthusiasm and kindling like enthusiasm in others, came to take a needed rest. Undiscovered truths of his loved science were beckoning him on. But there were other discoveries and other beckonings. A fever set in; his peaceful death came too soon for science, for on January 19, 1876, he made the great discovery. As before intimated there is no bibliography. And yet his line has gone out into all the recent literature of the rocks of his region. Probably a part of Mr. Wing's work has been lost beyond recall; but from field notes, letters, and incomplete papers, these latter evidently designed to be elaborated for publication, the greater part through Prof. James D. Dana's sympathetic labor has been recovered. This writing gives but an inadequate idea of the real work of vIr. \Ving, and so the writer most earnestly requests the reader to turn to an article in the American Journal of Science,
30 REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. Series III, Vol. XIII, page 332 and subsequent papers, that he may get a more nearly correct estimate of this work and its in flu en ce. Fragments of significant paragraphs from Professor Dana's article read: "Mr. Wing, by the use of his spare time amid the duties of teaching, accomplished vastly more for the elucidation of the age of the Vermont rocks than had been done by the Vermont 'Geological Survey. * * * Mr. Wing's discoveries shed light not on these rocks alone " (Eolian limestone and adjoining formations), " but also on the general geology of New England and eastern North America." But the whole article and related ones should be read, for with this incomplete sketch in hand one gets but a glimpse of Mr. Wing's real work. Yet, with even this, the reader may recognize something of the obligations science is under to one who with his surroundings did his best for geology and did so well. V T herever his careful, helpful, self-denying researches are known there an appreciative recognition of Mr. Wing's contributions to science is sure to he accorded. REPORT. The present report is the third issued by the writer. The first and second were largely devoted to the three great quarry - ing industries of the State, marble, granite and slate, and those especially interested in these industries are referred to the reports of 1898 and 1900 for many details concerning methods of quarrying, character of deposits, etc., which are there presented. Again, as in former reports, I am obliged to offer somewhat incomplete statistics because those to whom blanks have been sent have failed to reply. Most of the important companies have responded fully to requests for information as to their business, but there are numerous small ones which have sent no replies, and these, taken together, affect the sum total to an appreciable degree. On this account it is very probable that the whole production of the quarries and mines of Vermont is considerably larger than that which I have here given. I doubt if many of our citizens realize how large a revenue is annually brought into the State from the sales of stone. These sales are rapidly increasing and consequently the importance of the industry which makes them possible is growing greater, and therefore it seems quite certain that great as has been the past the future is to be much greater. As nearly as I can estimate, there are at present not less than ten millions of dollars invested in our quarries and mines, not less than eight thousand men employed as workmen in them; these men with their families representing a population of twenty-five thousand persons. The product of these industries during the last two years, 190 1-2, has been not less than twelve millions of dollars. During the decade between 1890 and 1900 the total income to the State from quarries and mines was not far from forty
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