1889 .] 
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[Bouve. 
waters, formed by the friction of stones which have been lodged in 
the hollows of the rock surface over which the torrent pours, and 
which having a somewhat circular motion imparted to them, grad- 
ually wear away the rock, with the result of producing these sin- 
gular objects. 
It is not surprising that when these have been found, as has often 
been the case where there was nothing to indicate there had ever 
been a river or running stream, they should have excited alike the 
wonder and interest of both scientific and unscientific beholders. 
It should be borne in mind that the knowledge of a great conti- 
nental ice sheet resting over our whole northern region is but a re- 
cent acquisition, and that phenomena having their origin under such 
a condition of things could not possibly be understood previously 
by the most learned of observers. 
It is interesting to note in this connection the conflict in mind of 
that acute investigator, Dr. Chas. T. Jackson, when writing upon 
the pot holes of this character, mentioned by him in his Final report 
upon the geology of New Hampshire. In remarks upon some in 
Orange, near the summit of elevated land, he says : — 
“No pot holes have been noticed as belonging to the drift epoch 
and the absence of them has induced geologists to deny that water 
was concerned in the drifting of soils and stones from the north. 
Hence this discovery will be regarded as one of great interest for 
it not only proves that waters rushed over these rocks in this ele- 
vated mountain gap but that a series of rapids and falls existed 
there.” 
After dwelling further upon the matter, he seems to have had an 
intuitive perception of what might be the truth, for he adds 
“If we could only know that there was here a glacier such as in 
Switzerland, then all would be plain.” 
The great fact that he stood when viewing the holes where thou- 
sands of feet of ice rested for very many centuries did not and 
could not at that time dawn upon his vision. 
The ideas of the unlearned respecting such pot holes are often 
ludicrous. With our own people they have been regarded as the 
work of the Indians and where found have been called Indian Pot 
Holes, from the thought that they had been wrought for and used as 
cooking vessels. Abroad they have been called Giants’ Kettles, 
undoubtedly from the belief that they were made by giants for 
their culinary use. 
