ROCKING STONES. 



61 



"When bowlders arc so balanced on their rocky support that the strength of a man can 

 move them, they are called rocking stones. Some such have been found in Vermont. 

 We give below a sketch of one found among the papers of Prof. Thompson. The figure 

 of a man and of an upturned tree show its size. 



FIG. 23. 



It is doubtless one of those figured by Prof. Thompson in the Appendix to his History 

 of Vermont, p. 52. It weighs above 70 tons, yet is easily moved by the hand. It is in 

 the town of Greensboro. There also is a bowlder 41 ft. long, 22 ft. high, and 22 ft. wide 

 in its widest part nearly equal to the Green Mountain Giant, in the same town. 



Where fissures exist in these bowlders, water percolating into them freezes in the win- 

 ter, and in the course of years splits them open. The parts by sliding along in wet soil 

 and otherwise, sometimes get separated quite a distance. This is often imputed to some 

 sudden and violent agency, whereas it has been the result of almost infinitesimal move- 

 ments. The figure below represents one of these split bowlders of large size. Its whole 

 length is 24 ft. ; its width 20 ft., and its height 16. It lies on the south side of Winooski 

 River, in Moretown, not far from the place where a bed of soapstone and serpentine runs 

 southerly into the hill, say two miles east of the railroad station in Waterbury. 



Fio. 24. 



