Connecticut western news., 1875-07-23
Salisbury and Vicinity.
Correspondence of the Brooklyn Daily
 Inlv fAfh

A4S VAltSYS W0lCQ cross tQ6 1aCOnlC TaQpC of mountains from east to west. It is cen eral and convenient point from which to visit some of the fine scenery of the region and to study its interesting geological fea- lures. The Taconic Mountains are con tinpatlon southward of the Green Noun tain range in Vermont, and are lost in the eastern extension of the Hudson Highlands. The great range has been cut by eroslon into various isolated ridges, affording views of mountain and valley scenery of rare and attr active beauty.
 @Those who have read the Star Papers by Mir. Beecher will remember his glowing and vivid descriptions of the scenery of this region. From this point series of most interesting excursions may be made over the country round about. For this purpose Q geod team and carriage may be had in the village at moderate cost. We will first visit the Twin Lakes, about three miles northeast of Salisbury. These are and equally so for those who love the re- tired and tranquil beauty of the surround ing scenery. There are few sheets of wa ter SO beautiful as these. Near the lakes is . cave in the limestone, formerly great attraction, but have not visited it, the en- trance being choked with rubbish. It was explored with great care few Iears ago by J. b. Pcose, Ese,y editor of that excel lent journal, the CONN. WESTERN NEWS, from whose description we quote.
 The cave, he says, is three miles from Salisbury, and is entered by wooden stairs of thirty steps. It consists of several chambers and galleries, the roofs and floors of which are covered with limo formations of rare beauty from ceaseless drippings in the cave. In many cases stslactitic forma- mvfo ho S~, Iols ko and fantastic columns; some of pure white, others fsintly and delicately tlnged with pale orange and yellow. At 524 feet from the entrance is spring in basin of limestone, ten feet long by five feet wide, and six feet deep. The entire circuit of the cave is 6 walk of about 400 feet.
 Leaving the Twin Lakes one may drive to the falls of the Housatonic at Falls Vil- lage. At this place the descent of the riy- CT is more than sixty feet, by rapids and by one grand plunge over the rocks. The ride back to Salisbury is westward over the mountains, affording views of valleys with farms and homes in retirement so com plete. as to seem beyond the reach of storms either of nature or of life.
 Another drive is to the iron mines and the lakes which lie in their vicinity. From one of these mines ore was taken a centu-
 
 tered settlement and wilderness it was car ried on horseback thirty or more miles to smelting furnace. Afterward it was con- veyed up the slopes of Mt. Riga, just at hand, where timber was abundant, char coal easily made and water power almost unIim- tied. being supplied from lakes lying in a great elevated plateau of the Taconic Mountains. This feature in the mountains formation will be referred to again. A beautiful village, Lakeville, has grown up in the vicinity ot tho iron mines, which oyerlooks southward two lakes scarcely less beautiful than those first mentioned.
 Theiron ore obtained here is from open excavations, and is more or less deeply buried with the glacial drift. It is of the kind known as brown hematite, with curi- ous stslactitic and crystalline forms and is derived from decomposition of other iron ores, probably from sulphurets of iron, and these sulphids or sulphurets existed in the rock of the region which has been disinte- grated by the mechanical and chemical ac- lion of the water.
 A drive of three miles takes us to the al- most treeless summit ot Mt. Prospect. an elevation of about 800 feet just back of Falls Village. This, next to Monument Mountain, near Harrington, affords the best near view of this portion of the Housatonlc Valley. Itextends southward to where the liver is lost In the deep clefts of the noun tains, northward to Monument Mountain and to Tom Ball, west of Stockbridge, and beyond these sixty-three miles away, is seen the summit of GreYlock, the highest land in Massachusetts. One IS impressed here with the extent and grandeur of the mountain system of Western Connecticut and Massa chusetts. The entire group, and the frag- of fho fer tains and drift covered mounds, are simply parts of one system, cut into their present form and contour by flowing water and Ices. All the mountains of the now broken range are of one kind of rock. It is mica slate, but Is mentioned on the map of Berk- shire county as talcose slate. This is cer. tainly an error, the tale appears only in places. The whole mass is simply an an cient mud bed hardened and partially meta morphosed by heat and pressure. The lay CTS are titled and upturned, water has worked it's way into them, and when it has done it's complete work the disintegrated material may form mud bed again, the material being chiefly sand and clay, with some lime, potash, magnesia and iron.
 But from this point of view another fea- ture of the landscape appears. A few feet more or less above the valley gray colored lmestones and white marble grin along the base of the mountains. The cave spoken of and the marble quarries of the valley are h this formation, itself g product of living forms in the earth's medieval age. Now -- this limestone underlies the mountain mass g referred to; holding them as dish holds sts contents.
 But both have been fearfuIly contorted and upturned by pressure and changed in form by heat. The old layers are twisted, htted to sharp inclines. or are set directly on edge. The stratiication of the lime stonesis largely lost in places and where theT heye been most disturbed, and the con. Ssequent heat the greatest, they have lost fheIr original gray or slaty hue and become ths pure crystalline marble, white as the driven snow.
 Our drives have hitherto been not more than five miles from Salisbury. one more remains for this letter. Early one morning we started for the summit of Mt Everett Our course was up Nit. Riga to the old fur nsce in which the Salisbury iron ores were once worked. The ruins of it remain, anG all around are evidences of great industry which has ceased to be in this place, bu which has been transferred to other locali- ties. The lakes which furnished watc power are psrtly drained, the dam anc siuiceways being broken. All about ar, stone foundations of houses, cellars fi,let with rubbish, and clumps of the wild ros, remain which grew beneath windows o : former residents here. After the departur of the iron business here livelihood wa not easily wrurg from the soil.
 We are now at Mount Riga, which is re ally no more than an elevation of abou 1000 feet, and comprises plateau betweel two ranges of mountains. A ride of eley en miles from Salisbury brings us to tn great dome of Mount Everett, SO named b, Professor Edward Hitchcock We speai of t&e mountains summit as dome. Ther are no peaks in the Green and Taconi Mountains, they everywhere present
 rounded contour.
 At Farmer Smiths we leave the mail load to ascend the mountain. Everybod