GLACIAL PHENOMENA IN MAINE. 
103 
lar, and their position so isolated, on high 
elevations, as to preclude the idea that im¬ 
mense tidal waves, freshets, or floods had so 
arranged them. Nature is so good a teacher 
that, the moment we touch one set of facts, 
we are instinctively, and almost unconsciously, 
led to connect them with other phenomena, and 
so to find their true relations. The boulders 
of the plains soon began to be compared with 
the boulders of the higher valleys ; ice itself 
was found to be a moving agent; and it was 
presently ascertained that the transportation 
of loose materials by existing glaciers, and 
their mode of distributing them, corresponded 
exactly with the so-called erratic phenomena 
of Central Europe and England. With these 
results were soon associated a great num¬ 
ber of correlative facts ; — the accumulation 
of loose materials under the glacier and upon 
its sides, as well as upon its surface, the tritu¬ 
ration of the former until they were ground to 
a homogeneous paste, and the regular arrange¬ 
ment of the latter as they successively fell 
upon the glacier, and were borne along upon 
its back, retaining all the sharpness of their 
angles, because they were subjected to no press- 
