144 GLACIAL PHENOMENA IN MAINE. 
characters, I requested the head workman, 
who had been watching my observations with 
a good deal of interest, to break me off a piece. 
It was not an easy task, for there were no 
angles, the dike being sunk below the sur¬ 
rounding surface and perfectly smooth. After 
a time, and not without some hard work, a 
wedge was driven in, and with the help of a 
crow-bar two or three very satisfactory speci¬ 
mens were pried out. I naturally wished to 
pay the man for his labor; but he refused to 
take anything, saying that he saw I was a 
geologist travelling for the sake of investiga¬ 
tion. He added, that he subscribed for one or 
two papers and magazines: perhaps he should 
meet with some of the published results of my 
journey one of these days, and that would 
be the best reward for the little help he had 
given. Seeing his interest in the object of my 
researches, I explained to him the significance 
of this dike, showed him the direction of the 
marks pointing straight to the north, and 
evidently entirely independent of tidal action, 
since they ran at right angles with it. As I 
bade him good by, he said, “ Henceforth this 
dike shall be my compass ; I shall know when 
