Letter from Du Wm. Meade. 161 



and no inconsiderable alarm, " That the mickle stane 

 was awa^''"' and the good woman could hardly believe her 

 eyes, when she saw in reality that it was gone from the spot 

 it had occupied the day preceding and that it had been re- 

 moved to the position where it now remains. General sur- 

 prise and curiosity were now excited which were no doubt 

 mingled with superstitious fancies, and the neighbours flock- 

 ed out to see and examine the subject of so extraordinary 

 a prodigy. To their astonishment the hole in which it had 

 been for so many ages imbedded, still remained to mark dis- 

 tinctly its yesterdays site, whilst its track across the flat 

 oozy sand was very perceptible, extending in a line from 

 its old to its new situation, la addition to these partic- 

 ulars I have since learned from my friend Mr. Bradie that 

 he visited the stone the day after, when he found all the 

 traces remaining quite apparent and an extensive cake 

 of ice adhering to the stone being attracted to its outer 

 ledge. 



It is evident that this vast mass of stone must have been 

 so far rendered specifically lighter than the water by the 

 great cakes of ice Avithin which it was bound, and by which 

 it was supported, as to be in some degree buoyed up, and 

 that whilst in this state, it was carried forward by the out- 

 going tide, assisted by the impelling force of a tremendous 

 hurricane blowing in the same direction. 



By the correspondence just detailed, we are furnished 

 with a comparatively recent and perfectly well attested 

 example of one mode by which large masses of detached 

 rock may be carried to considerable distances. For al- 

 though the waters of the tide which fill the bay in question, 

 were on account of their shallowness, incapable of buoying 

 up the extensive float of ice supporting the stone so per- 

 fectly as to prevent the keel of it from ploughing the sand 

 in the course of its progress over it, yet there is no reason 

 to doubt if it had been once fairly carried into deeper 

 waters it might have been ultimately transported to a much 

 greater distance. And if we can suppose the float of ice 

 to have been sufficiently tough and tenacious, we may 

 even conceive it probable that the stone might have been 

 deposited upon some remote shore, where no rock of the 

 same nature was to be found, and where it might have fur= 



Vol. VI.— No. 1. 21 



