GEOLOGY OF MOUNT DESERT. 71 



waves consists only of cobble stones, or of gravel and 

 sand, as at various points along the western coast. The 

 embankment may be built across the mouth of a bay, thus 

 enclosing Long Pond from Bracy Cove, east of Northeast 

 Harbor ; or it may stretch out and tie an island to the 

 shore, as at Bar Harbor. Bars of this kind are better 

 developed on sandier and shallower shores than on the 

 steep and broken coast of Mount Desert. 



As the waves rise and fall in broken rhythm on the 

 shore, as the tide flows and ebbs across the littoral belt, 

 so the seas of former times have risen and fallen in 

 uneven measure on the uneasy land ; the rocks have 

 grown and wasted ; the ice of the North has crept down 

 and melted away ; — all shifting back and forth in their 

 cycles of change. Only one scene lies before us of the 

 many that have floated through the past. 



