128 
[Assembly 
would be necessary to prevent it) a century or two would be sufficient 
to effect its entire removal, 
Kidd's rock, as it is called, is a remarkable erratic block which was 
imbedded in the loam of the tertiary formation. It has been under- 
mined by the action of the sea, and has slid down to the shore and 
cracked in many large fragments. Viewing it from a little distance, 
one does not realize its magnitude, but by climbing over and wander- 
ing among its fragments at low water, it seems to grow upon the ima- 
gination. Its fragments probably weigh at least 2,000 tons, and seve- 
ral sloop loads of it have been shipped to New- York for building stone. 
It is hornblendic gneiss, and some of its masses abound in epidote. It 
is a durable stone and will stand any exposure unchanged. 
Several companies of diggers for Kidd's money have expended much 
time and labor at this place. Mr. Mason relates many amusing anec- 
dotes relative to their mode of operating, and the ceremonies practised, 
some of which are sacrilegious. The superstitions connected with these 
gold hunters are a rarity of this enlightened age. I presume I speak 
within bounds when I remark, that in examining the geology of Long 
Island, I have seen many hundreds of excavations on the east side of 
the boulders and erratic blocks, where the gold hunters have dug for this 
pirate's money. 
The rock called Kidd's Rock, at Kidd's Point, three-quarters of a 
mile eastward of Sands' Point, is not the same that was known by that 
name a century ago. Mr. Mason informed me that Kidd's Rock was 
formerly the extremity of the Point, but was long ago undermined by 
the waves. He remembers having seen it as an isolated rock, some dis- 
tance from the shore, but it has long since disappeared, and the rock on 
the present point is called by that name. Had the money diggers been 
aware of this fact, it might have spared them the labor of searching 
here. In some parts of Long Island almost every boulder and block 
has had an excavation made by its side. 
Barker's and Hewlet's points have also been worn away by the action 
of the sea; but the Sound is here so narrow, that the destructive agency 
of the waves is not so great as at the localities before mentioned. 
Many other localities, where the same effects are in progress, on the 
west and southwest parts of Long Island, might be mentioned; but 
they are less marked in their effects, because they are not so much ex- 
posed to the fury of the surf from broad sheets of water. 
