MEMORIES OF THE 



hardly be detected in some places. The layers of stone parallel 

 to the surface of the earth are of all thicknesses, from a quarter 

 of an inch to five or six inches, and of different degrees of hard- 

 ness. Both the perpendicular and horizontal courses are very 

 irregular in thickness and width, but otherwise as regular, 

 square and perfect as if formed by the most accurate mathemat- 

 ical tools. 



The seams up and down, and the courses which they divide, 

 are as plumb as if made with reference to absolute accuracy in 

 that respect, and everything about them looks as if laid and 

 worked by the square and plumb. When, through the action of 

 frost or from any cause, a section falls from these high walls, 

 the hole left is rectangular and regular, and the sides and back 

 thereof smooth and true as though cut and polished by a marble- 

 cutter. A section only a few inches wide and deep, but perfectly 

 true and rectangular for fifty or a hundred feet, will loosen and 

 fall, leaving it with the appearance of having been carefully cut 

 out, removed and finished up in that shape. 



These peculiarities, so different from anything elsewhere 

 found, geologists are unable to account for — at least they have 

 never agreed upon any theory which they dare endorse. They 

 tell us that this Lorraine shale was formed in the Silurian period, 

 but can give no reason whatever for this, one of the most mar- 

 velous exhibitions of God's masonry yet found on this old globe. 

 Ages of unceasing effort in trying to fathom the great mysteries 

 of creation, so far has accomplished nothing. The geologist, 

 with all his scientific attainments, gives us no more light than 

 the answer of the child — " God made it so." 



These gulfs are nearly parallel and run east and west, divid- 

 ing the town into sections, and keep the people of their respect- 

 ive localities from very close acquaintance, as bridging them is 



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