G. H. Stone — Wind Action in Maine. 135 



showing that the process of denudation had been so rapid as 

 not to permit much weathering of the stones or much sand- 

 polishing. 



II. Sand- Carving. — In Professor C. H. Hitchcock's Report 

 on the Geology of Maine for 1861 (pp. 266-8) reference is made 

 to a peculiar train of bowlders found by Dr. N. T. True at Bethel, 

 Maine, and described by him before the Portland Society of 

 Natural History. A part of Dr. True's description is as fol- 

 lows : " I wish now," says Dr. True, "to call your attention to 

 a collection of bowlders of a peculiar character found in Bethel, 

 in this State. These bowlders are scattered over the surface 

 of the soil for several square miles. On one side may be seen 

 grooves, scratches, strial and polished surfaces. Nothing of 

 this is seen on opposite sides of the same rock. The opposite 

 surface is usually angular, as if it had not been subject to 

 abrasion since its detachment from the parent rock. Fre- 

 quently, as in the specimens before you, may be seen sharp 

 angles formed by a different presentation to the abrading sur- 

 face. Sometimes the grooves present an undulating surface 

 as if it had been subjected to a tremulous movement from the 

 impending mass. * * * There is a freshness in their appear- 

 ance as if they had been grooved yesterday. They present no 

 appearance like rocks on the sea-shore, which have been ex- 

 posed to the action of water. They are composed of granite, 

 hornblende, and grey-wacke slates." Professor Hitchcock re- 

 marks (loc. cit.), " the bowlders in Bethel are very curiously 

 shaped ; and it is not easy to say how these shapes were pro- 

 duced." Dr. True sent some of them to President Edward 

 Hitchcock of Amherst, who under date of Jan. 16, 1854, writes : 

 "I am very much puzzled with the specimens. They are dif- 

 ferent from anything I have seen, and deserve careful study. 

 The grand point of difficulty is to account for the bowlders 

 being held in so many different positions in order to be 

 scratched, or rather grooved, for the striae are different from 

 those in common rock." Both President Hitchcock and Dr. 

 True thought that the peculiar form of these bowlders was due 

 to iceberg action, a very natural view considering the then 

 prevalent theories as to the origin of the drift. 



The writer first studied these bowlders in the field in 1879, 

 when they were pointed out to him by. Dr. True himself. At 

 that time, in addition to the characteristic bowlders in the 

 vicinity of Bethel, I found one of precisely the same character 

 in Grilead, also one about a mile east of Gorham, New Hamp- 

 shire. (Dr. True thought they were only to be found at 

 Bethel.) It will be seen that these localities are all near the 

 Androscoggin river, and but a few miles from the White 

 Mountains. The unusually carved bowlders were all found 



