The Sand Blast. 633 



THE SAND BLAST AND ITS APPLICATION AT 

 WEST RUTLAND, VERMONT. 



BY J. B. SMITH, A. M., M. D., OF WEST RUTLAND. 



It has been long known to geologists, that very much of 

 the erosion or abrasion of even the hardest rocks, is the 

 result of fine sand being driven against them by high winds 

 at some period after their formation. The pyramidal, con- 

 ical and grotesque shapes of often detached masses of rock 

 on the Western plains, the " Monument rocks " in the " Gar- 

 den of the Gods," at Colorado City in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and the singularly grooved formations in many of the 

 California group, are all attributed by the best scientists to 

 the action we have named, probably coupled with more or 

 less aqueous agency. At the present time, wherever masses 

 of stone are exposed to drifting sand, as in the desert, this 

 attrition process is going on with more or less rapidity in 

 proportion to the force of the agent. The Pyramids and 

 the Sphinx, have for hundreds of centuries faced these cur- 

 rents, and bear upon their faces the impress of this force. 

 Some years since the attention of a distinguished chemist 

 of Philadelphia being directed to this subject, he under- 

 took a series of experiments with the view of making some 

 practical application of tliis knowledge to the arts. The 



