212 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. iv. 



one natural plienonienon which is certainly very exceptional, 

 and at the same time very effective. 



In the East Island most of the valleys are occupied by pale- 

 gray glistening masses, from a few hundred yards to a mile or 

 two in width, which look at a distance much like glaciers de- 

 scending apparently from the adjacent ridges, and gradually in- 

 creasing in volume, fed by tributary streams, until they reach 

 the sea. Examined a little more closely, these are found to be 

 vast accumulations of blocks of quartzite, irregular in form, but 

 having a tendency to a rude diamond shape, from two to eight 

 or ten or twenty feet long, and perhaps half as much in width, 

 and of a thickness corresponding with that of the quartzite 

 bands in the ridges above. The blocks are angular, like the 

 fragments in a breccia, and they rest irregularly one upon the 

 other, supported in all positions by the angles and edges of 

 those beneath. 



They are not weathered to any extent, tliough the edges and 

 points are in most cases slightly rounded ; and the surface, also 

 perceptibly worn, but only by the action of the atmosphere, is 

 smooth and polished ; and a very thin, extremely hard, white 

 lichen which spreads over nearly the whole of them gives the 

 effect of their being covered with a thin layer of ice. 



Far down below, under the stones, one can hear the stream 

 of water gurgling which occupies the axis of the valley ; and 

 here and there, where a space between the blocks is unusually 

 large and clear, a quivering reflection is sent back from a stray 

 sunbeam. 



At the mouth of the valley the section of the " stone river " 

 exposed by the sea is like that of a stone drain on a huge scale, 

 the stream running in a channel arched over by loose stone 

 blocks, or finding its way through the spaces among them. 

 There is scarcely any higher vegetation on the " stone run ;" 

 the surface of every block is slippery and clean, except where 

 here and there a little peaty soil has lodged in a cranny, and 



