ful
brooks having their source in the township, one, Wachusett Brook, runs
into Ware River, and thence to the Connecticut, while the other two,
East Wachusett and Keyes Brooks, get to the Merrimack by Still River and
the Nashua.

Mention has been made of Wachusett Lake. Properly speaking, this cannot
perhaps be considered as being in Princeton, inasmuch as about four
fifths of its surface lie in the adjoining township of Westminster.
Besides Wachusett Lake there is another called Quinnepoxet, which lies
in the southwestern part of the township, a small portion of it being in
Holden. It is smaller than its northern neighbor, covering only about
seventy acres, but it is a very charming sheet of water.

A brief account of the geology of this region may perhaps prove
interesting. In the eastern portion of Princeton the underlying rock is
a kind of micaceous schist, and in the western is granitic gneiss. The
gneiss abounds in sulphuret of iron, and for this reason is peculiarly
liable to undergo disintegration; hence the excellent character of the
soil in this portion of Worcester County where naked rock is seldom seen
in place, except in case of the summits of the hills scattered here and
there; and these summits are rounded, and show the effects of
weathering. As we go westerly upon this gneiss range, and get into the
limits of Franklin and Hampshire Counties, a larger amount of naked rock
appears, the hills are more craggy and precipitous, and in general the
soil is poorer. The three principal elevations in Princeton are mainly
composed of gneiss. This variety of rock is identical with granite in
its composition, the distinctive point between the two being that gneiss
has lines of stratification while granite has none. The rock of which
Wachusett is mainly composed has rather obscure stratification, and
hence may be called granitic gneiss. What stratification there is does
not show the irregularity that one would suppose would result from the
elevation of the mountain to so great a height above the surrounding
country; on the other hand the rock does not differ essentially in
hardness from that in the regions below, and hence the theory that all
the adjacent land was once as high as the summit of the mountain, and
was subsequently worn away by the action of water and weather, is hardly
tenable. The gneiss of this region is not especially rich in other
mineral contents. Some fine specimens of mica have however been obtain