286 Miscellaneous. 



are of much greater dimensions and weight than any lady would 

 choose to carry, the largest that I measured being Z\ feet long and 

 7 feet in circumference. The weight however is not so great as 

 might be expected from the bulk ; so loose is the texture, that one 

 near this house which was brought in and weighed, was found to be 

 only 64 lbs., though it measured 3 feet long and Q\ feet in circum- 

 ference. The centre is not quite hollow, but in all there is a deep 

 conical cavity at each end, and in many there is a small opening 

 through which one can see, and by placing the head in this cavity in 

 the bright sun, the concentric structure of the cylinder is quite ap- 

 parent. So far as I am yet informed, they do not occur in any of 

 the adjoining parishes, and they are limited to a space of about five 

 miles long and one broad. They may occupy about 400 acres of 

 this, and I counted 133 cylinders in one acre, but an average of a 

 hundred would, at a rough computation, yield a total of about 

 40,000. 



Now the question naturally arises, what is the origin of these bo- 

 dies .f* I believe the first idea was that they had fallen from the 

 clouds, and portended some direful calamity, and 1 hear an opinion 

 that one had fallen on a corn-stack and been broken to pieces. It is 

 a pity to bring down such lofty imaginations, and to deprive these 

 cylinders of their high descent, but I prefer truth, when it can be 

 discovered, to the loftiest theory. I must at once, then, set aside 

 the idea that they fell from the atmosphere in their cylindrical form, 

 as the first one I examined satisfied me that its symmetry and loose 

 texture must have been immediately destroyed on coming in rude 

 contact with this earth. 



Farther observation has convinced me that they have been formed 

 by the wind rolling up the snow, as boys form large snow-balls. 

 This is proved by examination of the bodies themselves ; their round 

 form, concentric structure, and fluted surface all show this mode of 

 formation. Again, it is proved by their position : none are found on 

 the weather side of hills or steep eminences, where the wind could 

 not drive them up, nor close to leeward of any wall or perpendicular 

 bank from which they seem to have originated — the nearest well- 

 formed small ones being 60 yards to leeward, and the large ones 

 100 yards. All nearer than this are fragments that have not gone 

 on to completion, but broken down in their passage, and the differ- 

 ent portions of the wreck form the nuclei of others. Many how- 

 ever are found blown to the windward side of walls or over the lee 

 side of banks. Indeed, they are found almost exclusively on the 

 leeward side of hills and eminences, where both the wind and decli- 

 vity assisted in rolling them along, or on plains so exposed that the 

 wind alone operated without the declivity. 



I shall only add, that this mode of formation is proved by the di- 

 rection in which these cylinders lie. The wind has been from the 

 north for four days, and I believe that it was so all night, when I am 

 told it blew strong. Now they are all lying with their ends east 

 and west, and their side to the wind ; and farther, in some cases, 



