An Erratic Is Born

ERRATICS are rather large boulders that stand or perch on top of soil that is different from most of the soil nearby, implying that it was carried within the ice of a glacier that receded as the climate warmed and was left as a solitary rock, far from its natural home. Long Island, and the Montauk peninsula in particular, is strewn with erratics dating from what is called the Wisconsinan glacial periods, which ended about 10,000 years ago. There is a strange majesty about erratics; those who own one that has been stranded in the same spot since recorded history (there are faux erratics displayed by bogus protectors who moved them from elsewhere) are considered extra lucky. This picture is of an erratic still partially embedded in a bluff of glacial till at Ditch Plains. It is about to fall to the strand as waves from storms lick it away from the substance of the cliff. A few erratics are the size of a two-room cottage; most in Montauk are about the size of a refrigerator. In folklore, each erratic has a god-like personality and some are benevolent and some are cranky and almost evil.