I08 PROCK:eDlNGS MANCHESTER INSTITUTE 



SOME GKOLOGICAI. FEATURES IN AUBURN. 



A short distance north-east of the station of Massabesic is a 

 rocky hill whose steep sides and rocky summit make it a notice- 

 able feature of the landscape. On the north and east the ap- 

 proach to it is gradual. On the west the abruptness is such as 

 to make ascent or descent difficult. From the summit a beauti- 

 ful view can be obtained of Eake Massabesic, whose island-dot- 

 ted surface stretches away to the south. 



The hill is composed of the gneiss that is common in this vi- 

 cinity. Upon the summit there are two dikes of light colored 

 igneous rock. An interesting feature of this place is the bend- 

 ing of the strata at the sides of the dikes, which show a 

 fault was made as the strata cracked open. After the split was 

 made, the two edges rubbed together, slightly bending the plas- 

 tic strata and leaving an interesting feature in the rock for our 

 edification. 



A few miles southeast of the above-mentioned hill, and about 

 half a mile south of the picturesque village of Auburn, is an- 

 other hill whose rounded summit carries a few bowlders left by 

 the ice sheet. Through the middle of the gneiss which makes 

 the hill is a stratum of mica schist, somewhat foliated and quite 

 porous. The whole hill is impregnated with iron. Sometime 

 in the past a rending of the earth's crust occurred at this place 

 and the schist gave way, leaving a fissure extending into the 

 hill. The entrance is six or seven feet high and about four feet 

 wide. For a few feet the cave is as wide and high as the en- 

 trance. Then, on the left side, a narrow crevice, just wide 

 enough for a man to squeeze through, extends.towards the mid- 

 dle of the hill for a distance of sixty-nine feet. About half wa}^ 

 in, one can climb up the perpendicular rock at the right and, b}^ 

 crawling through a small passage, come out on the side of the 

 hill eighty-one feet from the entrance. The name. Devil's Den, 

 which has clung to the hole for generations, attests the ortho- 

 doxy of the early inhabitants. 



The most interesting feature of the cave is a small deposit of 

 stalactitic limonite which coats the roof and the walls. This 



