Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-05-24
HOW BOULDERs TRAVEL.


!he mills or mountains to which they originally
belonged, How were such enormous masses
transported They often weigh MANY tons
anu no ordinary agency could have ayailed for
ioeonotion: Hugh Miller, in his volume on
Popular Geology" just published by Gould &
Lincoln, gives the credit of such gigantic facts
To Ieebergs, and gives an elaborate argument
TO prove that Great Britain, Northern Europe,
New England, much Of the North American
continent, WAS once covered by an Arctic
ocean, over which icebergs lOsted, as they
now career in Bsffins Bay. In illustration OF
the power Of ice TO transport boulders he gives
two well-known facts, which are much to the
point
"Some Of my audience may have heard of n
boulder, well known on both sides of the Moray
Firth as the Travelled stone of Petty a dis
trlct which includes the Moor of CullOden. and
at whose parish church Hector Boece saw the
gigantic bones of the colossal Little John The
Clach dhu n-Aban, or black stone of the white
6osIfor such is the graphically descriptive
Gaellc name of the mOss-measures about six
feet m height, by from six to seven feet in
breadth and thickness, and served, up to the
lsth February, 1899, as a march stone between
the properties of Castle Stuart and Culloden.
It lay just within foodmark. near where a
iitte stream emptics itself into shallow sandy
pay. There had been a severe, Iong-continued
frost throughout the early part of the month:
and the upper portions of the bay had acquired.
mainly through the agency of the streamlet, a
continuous covering of ice, that had attained,
round the base of the stOne which il clasped
fast, thickness Of eighteen inches.
ION the night of the 10Th the tide rose up-
usually high on the beach, and there broke
out violent hurricane from the east-southeast,
accompanied by snOw-stOrm. There is a meal
mill In tho immediate neighborhOod of the
stone; and when the old miller-as he related
the story to the late Sir Thos. Dick Lauder
got up on the morning of the 10th, so violent
was the storm, and 50 huge the snow wreatbs
that blocked up every window and door and
rose over the caves, that he could hardly make
his way tn his barns, journey of but a few
yards; and IN returning again from them to
his dwelling, he narrowly escaped losing him
self in the drill. In looking towards the bay
IN one Of the pauses of the storm. he could
scarce credit his eye-sight: the immense CIach
dhu n-Absn had disappeared-vanisbed- ed-eone
clean oil the ground; and he called to his wife
In astonishment and alarm, that the ..maikle
stane was avs" "
The honest woman looked out and then
rubbed her eyes as if to verify their evidence;
but the fact was unquestionable, the 'maik Ie
stane certainly was awa;' and there remain
ell but hollow pit in the sand, with a long,
shallow furrow, stretching from the pit out
wards To where the snow rIme closed thick
over the sea, to mark where it had been.
When, however, the weather cleared up, the
stone again became visible, lying out In the
sands uncovered by the ebb, $50 feet from
Its former position. In the evening of tho
day the neighbOrs flOcked out by scores to ex-
anime the scene of 80 extraordinary prodigy
W here the stone had lain they found but the
deep dent. connected by the furroy which Law
athwart the bay in the line of the hurricane
with the stone itself around the base of which
there still projected a thick cOrnice of ice In
this new position the stone still and only
few years agO-mayhap, still-a wooden most
which marked the point where the two contip-
uous properties met--marked also the sp0t
from which, after a rest of ages it had set ont
on MS short voyage.
My other case Of boulder trayeIing-in
some respects more curious case than the one
early in the present century
on the eastern coast Of Suthsrandshire Near
the small hamlet of ToTTibal, in the upper part
of LOch Fleet, there stood, about fifiy wears
ago, rude ObeIisk of undresscd stone, gene
rally regarded as Danish, which, though more
anclent than authentic history, OF even tradi-
ton, Ia the district, was less 20 than the old
coast line, as it had been evidently erected
subsequent to the last change Of level ON the
mar marginal strip which intervenes between
the old line and the sea. 1t rose in the middle
OF swampy hollow, which protracted rains
sometimes converted into strip of water, and
which was sometimes swept by the overflow
lngs OF the neighSOring river.
On the eve Of the incident which proved
the terminating one in its history, the hollow
previously filled with rain water, had been
frozen To the bottom by a continued frost which
was, however, on tie eve Of breaking uD: and
dense fog lay thick in the valley, when a be-
nighted Highlander, returning tipsy from a
market py the light OF the moon, came stagger-
ing In the direction of the standing stone. and
N "a nrnn nLyara frnls L =
1t; and then, wandering off into the mist. he
lost sight OF both stone and bonnet, and failing
To regain them, he had to return bareheade1
10 his home. The thaw cane on; the river rose
over Its banks; the ice-cake around the obelisk
fioated high above the level wrenching up the
obeiiSk along with it. as the ice Of the St. Law
renee wrenched up the stakes described by Sir
Charles Lyell; and ,bo ice-cake and obelisk
hoated down the Loeb to the sea AS the morn
ing brOke-a fierce morning of flood and tenn
Past-they were seen passing what was some
Iorty years ago known as the Little Ferry; the
alarm went abroad along the shores on both
sues, thdt there was LlNH standing in the
mddle OF the loch on the floating ice and in
course Of being swept out to the ocean
Poor man he had been crossing the river
lt was inferred, when the ice broke up. and
though the enterprise was a somewhat perilous
one Tor the Ice fragments were rushing furi
OuSiy along on the wild tide of the lOch, mad
iened by the inundstion, boat. doubIe-man-
ned, shot out from the shore to the rescue. and
'oon reached the drifting ice-foe Itwas ulti-
matciy seen, however, that the supposed man
was but Danish obelisk, bearing on its head
n mysterious bonnet; and bonnet and obelisk
were left to find their way To the German
ocean. in which it is probable they now both
lie. These modern instances of boulder tray
cling may serve to show how huge stones oriyi
nally associated with the boulder clay NAV
have come to rest on the arenaceous or gravely
deposits which orerlie it. Through the second
voyage of the Petty boulder it was deposited
on recently-deposited bed of sand and the
Of Torribsl may now rest on sea
shells that were living half century ago"