The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1874-10-01
Science In and about Belfast.


For the journal
The Penobscot valley has so many features OF
interest to the geologist that few words from
| our pen may be of service to your readers
| Our attention has been directed to the strange
| behavior Of your granite In the Otis quarry
near Belfast, explosions occur now and then
and fragments of granite weighing many pounds
are thrown into the air. AS only one case OF
spontaneous rock explosion had been known to
| science, the facts reported from this quarry
| appeared to us of special interest On oul
| visit the proprietors put us in possession of all
| the facts necessary for the formation of an
| opinion. There is no doubt that explosions
| accompanied by loud noise and the projection
| of rock fragments hundreds Of feet through the
| air, have occurred. And Il mere glance at the
| sheets of granite which have been partly de.
| tached from their beds is enough to show that
| the rock has been compressed, not by pressure
| from above, but by a tremendous force applied
| idterdhy. 1t is as if you applied pressure to
the ends of a book and the pressure, instead OF
wrnkling the leaves, forced their particles into
closer union. To complete the parallel you are
| to suppose that the COMPRISING force is moi
Withdrawn, but remains perpetuay. Then
when you cut Il strip from leaf lcngthwise, i
| attached at both ends but if free to expand
| it will spring up. If detached now at one enc
| it will draw itself out and the increased length
| will show the amount of compresSio it has en-
| dured. If the compression is removed from
| lower leaf but it remains held down by pressure
| from above it may expand with a force which
! Will Shatter the superintendent weight an,
| throw it in fragments into the air.
| We have been attempting to sci forth great
| things by small. For the book imagine Il gran
ite hill. compressed at right angles to the trell,
| Of the lodges, and YOU have an explanation o
the movements which occur in the OTIS quarry
| similar facts have been observed by the write,
| in the granite quarry al Monson, Mass The
| subject was brought before the American As
| sociation at its Portland meeting, and we bring
| it now before the larger association, called ''tht
general public not to discuss its abStrllSp geo
| logical bearings, but rather to put observers on
the alert.
| Another case of strange behavior can lie OBJ
| served in a graniteledge in Stockton. Ona grand
| er scale it can be 4 few miles from Bucks
face there lay, Il few years ago. a bleak protll
| sion OF granite boulder>. To-day these houldcr>
| are seen In every stage of ruin. Here and there
| is a mound of gravel, all that remains of a once
| great boulder, while here and there is a boulder
| Just smitten with decay. We have found the
| decay not Il chemical rot, but mechanical dis
! Indignation. The granite was badly made. anu
the fate which awaits all dishonesty has at las
| overtakcn these bouderS. But the mystery il
| that these rocks should have stood there 81
| many thousand years-perhaps 100000 (sinc,
| the Glacial PERIOD all firm and sound and
| then, all at once, about twenty years ago
taken it into their old tinty heads to tumble
down into gravel.
II the tourist W i'll drive on 4 few miles beyonG
this world rot. he will >ee the most wonderful
display of boulders on the continent or on any
ton of the wild TANKS of katahdin IAN ,lnhan-
seled world He will think OF SCOTS ,le~cril-
ton of the Scotch Trossacs.
Rocks hills, and knobs contusedy hurled,
The fragments of an earlier world"
Immense boulders lie in wild confusion
boulder on boulder. We imagined that if seer
on moonlit winter night the traveller might
think himself in 4 wierd, Silent random-bul
city.
Since the glacial winter left these boulder,
the coast Of Maine has been slowly rising II
clay bed on a high hill overlooking Belfast
a clay bed which, we are told, was workeG
| many Years ago by Mr.. Perce as brick yard
we have found fossil clam shells and oyster
shells
II it had pleased Providence to give ~ oul
turn in the world few thousand Years later
when the truths of science will command j
deeper interest than the tolleS and foibes OF
men. "n'',a have taloarra llcd This discovery
10 The metropolitan dailea,
Found in hill top at Belfast, fossil -Nyo
dren0rtd Ostre0 E1u{jS and .Spia 0rcticd.
The upward movement of PenobScot since the
post-gracial period, according to the testimony
Of these fossils has been at least two hundred
feet
The editorial following such announcement
might run something like this
''Our correspondent announces a very i'm
portant discovery from the metropolis Of the
PenObscOt. 1t is gratifying to know that Bel
fast is rising. Our antiquarian has been look
ing INTO the matter and he finds that the uplrald
movement began arhen she built a neae hote{ :
Many other curious facts he has found hidden
away IN the musty archives. He has found
that certain hall which psychologists say was
located in Boston and called ''Faneuil" was
constructed in part out of pine cut in the enyi-
rons of this very Belfast. Now it is known 10
the antiquarian that very long ago, about the
dawn OF civilization, the seal Of what was then
Maine bore the image of a pine tree May not
the discovery OF our antiquarian throw light on
the origin of the ancient seal ? Can we not
suppose that in ancient times the territory then
called Maine, coeNtensiye very nearly with the
present states of Penobscot and Aroostook was
wooded with pine very curious point, ami
one which has not vet been settled, is the time
when these people left off depicting a pine tree
ON their escutcheon and began to draw a ryra-
mid OF Ice resting ON a cube Of granite"
w u GINNING