This nice little piece of gneiss is a serious survivor being about a billion years old. The glacier carried it down from Canada to Wayne County and dropped it here about 10,000 years ago. This pebble came from a metamorphic rock that originally formed ten miles or more beneath the earth’s surface.  After various eons orogenies and earthquakes later, it ended up on a refrigerator.

approximately 1 inch white quarztite Lake Ontario pebble refrigerator magnet

 A sailor with a white pebble in his pocket will never drown or so the folk lore says. A  white stone also gave a famous Scottish prophet the gift of foretelling the future. Consult this pebble before contributing to your next discount brokerage trade (and maybe check with the Motley Fools too just to be safe!)

From the tragic ends of several family owned cargo schooners of the nineteenth century to the improbable outcome of a fishing trip on Lake Ontario taken in 2002, Gateley’s newest book chronicles a variety of maritime disasters, acts of heroism, and near misses. Shipwrecks, the result of bad luck, bad management, or some combination of the two, were an all too common event on Lake Ontario in the 19^th and early 20^th century. In this collection you’ll read of the unfortunate end of the

schooner Ariadne and the difficult death of the Noyes, both destroyed by winter gales. Steamers, too, were at risk as the story of the Quinte’s  end by fire and the Lady of the Lakes’ close call show. The book also describes  mishaps that occurred at the port of Oswego, the most lethal harbor for old sailing ships on the lake for a number of years, and ends on a lighter note with tall tales from the past and a couple of really close calls from the twenty first century.

available April 8 2006

the Beach Pebble Guide Laminated plastic photo key shows nine common varieties of beach pebbles with  brief descriptions of each. On reverse a short history of the ice age details how they all got here. Your water resistant pebble guide is also useful in an emergency as a rain hat or a fly swatter. Buy a couple to give to the young rock hounds in your family!