CHAPTER V. 



THE devil's pulpit — GLACIAL DAMS, ETC. 



After what has been brought before us in preceding pages 

 our readers will not be surprised at the introduction of another 

 witness to the series of events occurring in past ages, of which 

 no written evidence is obtainable and concerning which tradi- 

 tion is and must be forever silent. With the admission of the 

 claim for the presence of quaternary or even tertiary man, we 

 acquire no new source of information, and may look for no addi- 

 tion aid from any assumed living contemporaries. The science 

 of anthropology has kept pace with other kindred lines of inves- 

 tigation, and a consensus of conclusions in this department of 

 inquiry leads us to hope for no enlightenment from a race of 

 savage men, scarcely less brutal in their instincts than the wild 

 beasts with which they contended. As herecofore, our reliance 

 must be wholly upon evidence put upon record by the operations 

 of natural forces — records which have fortunately been so endur- 

 ing as to survive the ravages of time in the vast lapse which 

 has succeeded. 



We turn, then, with undisguised satisfaction, to the testimony 

 given by a most remarkable and almost unique example of rock- 

 wear performed by a pre-historic stream, located in our own im- 

 mediate neighborhood, in the adjoining town of Bedford, and 

 commonly known as the "Devil's Pulpit." With the exception 

 of a brief and inaccurate allusion in Savage's " History of Bed- 

 ford," we are not aware that any account has ever been published 

 or any accurate description attempted. How little importance 

 was attached to this phenomena, and how absolutely void of sig- 

 nificance it was regarded no longer ago than 185 1, is shown by 

 Savage's reference, which we append. 



The historian says : "There are some objects of curiosity 

 worthy of note. On the west line of Bedford, near Chestnut 



