New England is known for its rocky soil, the aftermath of ancient glaciation. Indeed, whole boulders have been left behind by receeding ice.

However a new perspective on New England rock may be obtained by doing a modicrum of yard work. As a gardener, I am puzzled by the evident migratory patterns of rock within the New England soil.

One can have worked and tilled the soil to a goodly depth, removing the small fragments of rock inevitably found in this part of the world. Next year, however, rocks (fist size and larger) may still be found, where none had been left the year before.

Meanwhile, the rocks one may have set out as a border between lawn and garden slowly become submerged below the layer of ground surface. Every year or so these must be retrieved, dug out, and re-placed, else the border disappear entirely.

I contend that the rocks themselves migrate.

Some inner urge pulls them down from the garden/lawn borders we humans artificially set in place. Yet another inner force draws them, and the massive quantity of rocks submerged since before Columbus, up and onto the surface. This migration is slow, but it is migration none the less.

If Jimmy Hoffa emerges somewhere in my garden some year, I'm really going to be worried.

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