GLACIAL DRIFT. 267 



sions. Their position requires the invocation of glacial action to ac- 

 count for their removal from the pinnacle or cliff from which they seem 

 to have come. We could not have expected anything less than such a 

 royal discovery, when the chief executive of the commonwealth set him- 

 self to search for something worthy of mention. 



Vessel Rock. In Gilsum a large boulder (Fig. 55), called Vessel Rock, 

 from its fancied resemblance to a ship, has long attracted attention. Dr. 





Fig. 55. — Vessel Rock, Gilsum. 



Jackson described it in his report, and thinks it came from a coarse gran- 

 ite ledge fifteen rods distant, according to G. A. Wheelock. The rock 

 itself measures 46 feet in length, 24 wide, and 26 high, containing over 

 28,000 cubic feet. A piece was split from it by frost in 18 17, measuring 

 33 feet long and 10 wide. The whole stone before splitting was said by 

 Jackson to include 32,000 cubic feet, and to weigh 2,286 tons. Other 

 large fragments of the same rock occur to the west and south. The 

 building shown in the figure is a school-house. It is about a mile and a 

 half south-west from the village. 



Elephant Rock. This boulder is situated in Newport, within a few 

 feet of the summit of Pike hill, fully 1,500 feet above the level of the 

 sea. It is composed of graphic granite. Its length is about 29 feet, 

 and its height not far from 23 feet. The rock is represented in Fig. 56. 



Dr. Jackson says, in his report (p. 100), — "Some immense blocks of 

 granite occur in Northumberland, on the estate of Mr. Mills Olcott, of 



