WILD DEER. 105 



GLACIAL STRIATION. 



Nature was the first historian in the world, and her subject 

 was physical geography. She was not a rapid writer, as it 

 took ages upon ages for her to form her characters which 

 modern science has taught us how to read. She never would 

 have been a successful editor of a daily newspaper, who is 

 expected to write a learned leader for each issue of his paper. 

 During the glacial period while New England was covered 

 with ice, Nature sharpened her pen and took notes. When 

 the ice melted, she had left messages on the rocks and in the 

 mountains which are as legible to-day as the pages of Herodo- 

 tus or other classic historians. 



I am led to make these remarks as some notes of her work 

 may still be found by the wayside on the old road to Ayer. 

 Soon after passing Sumner Graves's house, — as laid down on 

 the map at the end of Mr. Butler's History, — and going down 

 the hill, toward Flanagan's Crossing, a large rock or ledge 

 crops out on the right-hand side of the way, nearly opposite 

 to the granite quarry. On the surface of this rock are the 

 traces of some beautiful glacial striation together with the 

 smoothing process caused by the rubbing of stones on 

 the surface. The general direction of these grooves is from 

 the north-west to the south-east. 



An old Grotonian who had sailed out of New Bedford har- 

 bor in a whaler once told me that the outcropping of this 

 ledge on the surface always reminded him of a whale's back 

 at sea. 



WILD DEER. 



In recent years by legislative enactment the Commonwealth 

 has thrown its protecting arm around wild deer; and conse- 

 quently within the limits of the State this breed of animals 

 has increased in a prolific manner. Twenty years ago in this 

 neighborhood a deer roaming through the meadows or feed- 

 ing in the pastures was a sight never witnessed, while to-day 

 herds of considerable numbers are seen at intervals, Miss 



