Admittedly, it's not quite that easy. Many Maine islands lie miles from shore and all are subject to wind, currents, and fog. They are, moreover, all but invisible to most landlubbers.
Sure visitors can see rocks and trees.
Maybe they can even identify fireweed and tell a gull from a cormorant and a fir from a pine. Captain Martha Jordan observed after clearing away strands of dried seaweed to reveal an unmistakable blue figure in the red stone. According to Maine State archeologist Mark Heddon, such figures, which are scattered around Machias Bay, were carved at times ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 years ago. The artists, Heddon says, were Etchimins, seafaring Indians who lived east of the Penobscot River and for whom Machias Bay seems to have been a central congregating point. These were shamanic symbols, I surmised, memorializing such rituals as fishing, coming of age, birth, and death.