lanJom ilotea on iatural Ibton). 



Vol. III. 



PROVIDENCE, JULY 1, 1886. 



No. 7. 



Entered at the Providence Post-Offiee as Second-Class Matter. 



■]|anbom !f of^s on If atural "Jlbtorii* 



A Monthly Devoted to the Distribution of Use- 

 ful Knowledge Concerning the Various De- 

 partments OB Zoology, Mineralogy, and 

 Botany. 50 Cents a Year. 

 Address all comraui ications to 



JAME.S M. SOUTHWICK, 

 258 Westminster St., Providence, R.I., U.S. A. 



A Visit to the Wolf Rocks. 



This romantic and curious glen with its 

 piles of gigantic boulders, called the Wolf 

 Rocks, because the}' former!}^, with little 

 doubt, sheltered the wolf and other wild 

 beasts, is situated partly in Kingston and 

 partly in P^xcter. The glen forms a deep 

 ravine, which runs northwest and southeast, 

 cutting across a long ridge or hill, forming 

 one of the highest elevations in the town of 

 Kingston. Leaving the Kingston railroad 

 station a drive of two miles over a romantic 

 road leads to a wood road or path to the 

 rocks. The ravine is about fifty feet deep, 

 the sides, especially on the north, quite deep 

 and covered with enormous boulders, some of 

 them ten or twelve feet in diameter. The 

 glen is about an eighth of a mile long, and 

 before reaching the eastern end the path 

 makes a turn to the left and opens somewhat 

 abruptly into an amphitheatre. Here the 

 scene is most impressive, the side towards 

 the northwest rising steeply some fifty or 

 sixty feet at least, and paved with huge 

 boulders as if cast down b}' Cyclopean hands. 

 The Wolf Rocks may find their analogues 

 in the White Mountains, but for Rhode 

 Island presents a scene of unusual interest. 



The boulders are large, not much rounded, 

 and evidently had not traveled far from 

 the parent rock. Some are of coarse 

 granite, with a flesh-colored feldspar, like 

 that quarried at Wester!}- ; in others the 

 feldspar is whitesh, while many of the bould- 

 ers are of a dark gneiss, and there is a large 

 boulder of white quartz some four feet in 

 diameter. 



To explain the origin of the Wolf Rocks 

 we shall have to go back to the glacial 

 period, a time which had such a potent in- 

 fluence in shaping the scenery of New Eng- 

 land. 



At the beginning of the ice age the land 

 stood so high above the sea that Long Island 

 Sound and Narraganset Ba}' were dr}' land. 

 Rhode Island, as well as southern New Eng- 

 land, out to the Elizabeth, Block, and Long 

 Islands, was mantled in ice, a sheet some 

 three to five hundred feet in thickness. 

 This sheet moved slowly from a little east 

 of north, southward, as proved by the ice 

 marks on Mount Pleasant in Providence, 

 and on either side of the ba}- south of the 

 city. The highest elevations- were worn 

 smooth and somewhat ground down, and 

 the huge pile of debris formed a part of the 

 great terminal moraine of the New England 

 portion of the continental glacier. 



If from the hasty examination made 

 under the guidance of I. G. Peckham, Esq.. 

 and the Rev. Mr. Wells, of Kingston, our im- 

 pressions are correct, the ravine or gorge 

 containing the Wolf Rocks was formed be- 

 fore the ice sheet. The latter moving 

 southward, pushing before it and also, per- 

 haps, carrying on its broad back a load of 

 boulders broken off" from the ledges to the 

 northward, dumped some of them into the 

 ravine, partly filling it up, while others fell 

 in as the ice melted. Such seems to be the 

 story of these boulders. None of them ap- 

 pear to have been great travelers, and it 

 would be a pleasant task for the local geolo- 

 gists or summer boarders in the pleasant vil- 

 lage of Kingston to track them to their origi- 

 nal birthplace. At all events, they are 

 resting in a romantic glen, one of the wild- 

 est and most picturesque spots in the state. 



Hkown Univkksity. 



-Providence JnuniaJ. 



Mr. I. M. Thrasher reports a Yellow- 

 crowned Night Heron shot near Tiverton,^ 

 IL I., about Mav 1st. 



