The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo

THE LOGAN STONE.

Rock so Perfectly Poised That a Touch Will Set It Rocking.

The Logan Stone is near Penzance, in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England, about eleven miles from Land's End. This famous stone rises on the summit of a bold promontory of granite, which extends some distance out in the bay. It is believed to weigh ninety tons, and yet it is so perfectly poised where it stands that a touch can set it rocking. It rests by its center only on a flat, broad rock, the lower rock resting on several others that stretch around it on all sides. The pivot on which the Logan stone is so easily moved is a small protrusion on its base, on all sides of which the whole surrounding weight of rock is by accident of nature, so exactly equalized as to keep the enormous mass poised on this little neck. In 1824, Lieutenant Goldsmith, an officer of the royal navy, was told of an ancient prophecy that no human power could ever succeed in overturning the Logan Stone. He laid a wager that he could do it in spite of the prophecy. He went to the point with a half dozen men and as many levers. These levers he had placed under the stone at one side, and at the word heave the great stone was thrown from its pinnacle. In falling the stone was caught in a crevice in the rock. The people of Penzance were very indignant at this desecration of their ancient landmark, and the Admiralty commanded the Lieutenant to put the stone back. The young man did so, but it was a very difficult and expensive task. It was raised by means of beams, ropes and pulleys; a large number of workmen were needed, and it took them a week to get the work done. The Lieutenant had to pay for it all. It took him several years, for he was poor and without friends, and his health gave way in the last effort, so that he had no sooner made the last payment than he died. The poise of the rock is said to be less perfect since it was moved than before.-Chicago Inter-Ocean.