MARBLE is a granular rock composed of calcite crystals. It is formed when heat volatilizes the bituminous coloring agents of ordinary limestone and simultaneously causes enlargement of the calcite grains. It is the principal rock in the Berkshire Valley in which North Adams, Adams and Pittsfield are located. OPHICALCITE is a lime-silicate rock. It is formed by the chemical reactions of hot solutions on limestone or marble at considerable depth within the earth. The original calcite is converted into diopside, garnet, vesuvianite and tremolite, forming a rock that may be massive, or which may preserve some of the original bedded structure. It is found in association with the crystalline limestone and magnetite at the old iron mine, located one mile north of Bernardston. SERPENTINE is a dark-green rock made almost exclusively of the mineral serpentine. It results from the reaction of hot solutions on olivine and pyroxene rocks (peridotites). Serpentinite is present in the Westfield marble quarry and at Zoar on the south side of the Deerfield River. SOAPSTONE is composed principally of talc. It, too, results from the chemical activity of hot solutions ascending through serpentine and causing the mineral transformation. Bodies of this material are associated with the serpentinite at Westfield and Zoar, and northward in sections of Vermont. It is mined for talc, but in colonial days it found many uses. The colonists used cross-cut saws to make blocks for foot warmers in their sleighs, to control the heat in the old wood-fired ovens and to make water pipes before iron and lead were available in adequate quantities. Many soapstone articles may be seen—and purchased—in Wiggins Country Store and in other good antique shops through the valley. One of the most primitive Indian cultures in this region utilized soapstone pots, and exhibits are on display at both the Springfield Museum of Natural History and the Amherst College Museum. Conclusion To anyone who has had the patience to read through the preceding pages and to reach these concluding remarks, it must be obvious that geology is not merely a pastime for specialists. It does not take half a dozen college and university degrees to collect rocks and minerals, and to understand what they mean; or to appreciate not alone the beauty, but also the long and involved, yet logical, origin of scenery; or to comprehend from a rock-cut or cliff the vast changes which have occurred in the course of geologic time; or to grasp the current significance, as well as the historical importance, of such rock and mineral products as the trap, the limestone, the pyrite, the lead veins, the soapstone, the varved clay, the gravel banks.