270 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



were agreeably disappointed in discovering- at Bar harbor in Eden 

 so interesting a deposit, although its dimensions in Eden are very 

 small.. The salt-water of the ocean seems very often to preserve 

 the primitive character of many rocks within the reach of its influ- 

 ence, while that part of it which is exposed only to the action of 

 atmospheric agents is woefully weathered and obscure. This fact is 

 well illustrated in Machiasport, where it is utterly impossible to do 

 anything with the weathered siliceous slates upon the crest of the 

 promontory, while within the reach of tide-water the character of 

 the rock and the dip of the strata are distinctly preserved, as well 

 as the drift striae. So it is in a less degree in Eden. At Bar 

 harbor, opposite Bar island, for the distance of one and a half 

 miles, an interesting quartz rock appears on the shores, dipping at 

 a very moderate angle and exposed in very interesting bluffs. It 

 appears to belong to the same formation as the Rock of Flint isl- 

 and, described last year. We suggested a Lower Silurian age for 

 that upon no very reliable grounds — more of fancy than real argu- 

 ment, because it reminded us so much of the Potsdam sandstone 

 in its external appearance. This rock is less flinty and more sedi- 

 mentary and micaceous in its character. Eipple-marks are found 

 upon the layers, and also the curious cylindrical stems so common 

 at Flint island. The layers dip 12° N. 20° W., quite the reverse 

 of what they appear upon this section. But it was necessary to 

 represent the dip in the section as south-easterly in order to show 

 the true relation of the strata to the underlying granite — dipping 

 away from rather than underljing the granite. The rock upon five 

 islands lying between Bar harbor and Gouldsborough, viz : Bar 

 island, Long Porcupine island, Ironbound island, and two others, 

 is probably the same, and it may extend into Gouldsborough. Bar 

 harbor is only twenty-five miles from Flint island in a straight 

 line, and it would not be strange if these rocks are connected to- 

 gether under the water. We notice that quite a large promontory 

 in Gouldsborough has the name of Grindstone point, which causes 

 us to conjecture that a sandstone rock exists there to give the 

 name to the point. 



Going back from the shore this quartz rock is very much acted 

 upon by the weather, and would not be recognized commonly as 

 the same rock, and the marks of stratification are overshadowed 

 by the planes of cleavage, so that the former are rarely noticed. 

 Another patch of this siliceous rock not on the line of the section, 



