362 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



The explanation oflfered is, that the ice had removed these stones 

 to a depth in the lake equal to its thickness, and had by degrees 

 thrust them ashore. 



Another observer, Mr. Wood, accounts for the effect also by the 

 ice, but in a different manner. He thinks the ice may attach 

 itself to all those stones which are near to, or project above the 

 surface of the water, and thus retain them in one mass with itself; 

 that upon the breaking up of winter the ice naturally thaws, and 

 separates first at the edges of the ponds or lakes ; that as water 

 flows into these natural reservoirs from the dissolution of snow or 

 ice, and the abundant rains of spring, it increases its quantity, 

 and, by buoying up the ice and agitation, ultimately loosens many 

 of the stones, to which the ice is attached, from the earth ; that 

 they are then borne about as with a floating island, are forced by 

 the wind with the ice to the shore, and as the ice melts are drop- 

 ped in succession much nearer to the shore than they were when 

 taken up. Many of the tracks in the clay or mud may be formed 

 by those stones which, projecting from the ice beneath, partially 

 rest on the mud, but are still attached to the floating mass, and 

 subject to its motions. The buoyancy of ice is such as abundantly 

 to enable it to support stones even of a very large size. — Silliman^s 

 Jour. ix. 136. 



2. Distance to which Sand and minutely -divided matter may be car- 

 rled by Wind. — The following is part of a letter by Mr. Forbes, of 

 Chapel-street, Tottenham-court-road : " On the morning of the 

 19th of January last, being on board the Clyde East Indiaman, 

 bound to London, in lat. 10^ 40' N., long. 27° 41' W., and con- 

 sequently about 600 miles from the coast of Africa, at day-light 

 we were surprised to find our sails covered with sand of a brownish 

 colour, the particles of which, when examined by a microscope, 

 appeared extremely minute. At 2 p.m. of the same day, having 

 had occasion to unbend some of our sails, clouds of dust escaped 

 from them on their being struck against the mast by the wind. 

 During the preceding night the wind blew fresh from N.E.b.E., 

 and of course the nearest land to windward was that part of the coast 

 of Africa which lies between the Gambia river and Cape de Verd." 



Mr. Forbes naturally suggests whether many of the seeds of 

 those plants found in remote and new-formed islands of the ocean 

 may not have been conveyed in the same manner. — Europ. Mag. 

 1825, p. 223. 



3. Rocking' stone ^ Savoy, Massachusetts. — Remarkable Limestone 

 Rock. — The rocking-stone is of granite, and venerable with the 

 mosses and lichens common in this part of the country. It may be 

 moved with ease, so as to describe an arc of about five inches, by 

 the hands, or a shoulder, or by standing on its summit and leaning 



