THE CAMERA 



481 



of the brook. Sometime I hope to travel Water Wears away a Stone, 

 over the world in my rubber boots by It is proverbial that the continual 

 turning thirty-two points of the compass dropping and running of water will 

 in every direction from the middle of the wear away a stone, but we are inclined 

 brook in every season of the year. Se- to think of that saying, if we think of 

 lect any of the many spaces in almost it at all, in its application to persist- 

 any brook and you may have all the valu- ence in a good cause or to the evil of 

 able panorama that swings around that persistence in a bad cause, compara- 



"REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF THIS ABRASIVE POWER OF WATER." 

 Note how evenly the boulder has been worn away, and how graceful is the curve. 



center during the varying days of the 

 year, yes, even hours of the day. I have 

 one regret in regard to Tennyson's "The 

 Brook," because he followed only the 

 varying courses of the water. The 

 scenery, the bank, the flowers, the birds 

 are enough to engage our closest atten- 

 tion. 



Was Linnaeus right or was he simply 

 indulging in a little hyperbole when he 

 laid his hand on the bit of moss and said 

 to the pupil, "Here is sufficient material 

 for the study of a lifetime?" If he were 

 right, then in the same spirit I say that 

 any spot in the middle of a brook affords 

 plenty of material for an age-long study, 

 provided the observer have for making 

 the records a good camera and, for com- 

 fort and protection, woolen socks in a 

 pair of rubber boots. 



tively few r of us realizing that water 

 really does wear away a stone. 



While wandering up a brook in che 

 dry season, accompanied by a camera 

 and a friend, we came upon a remark- 

 able example of this abrasive power of 

 water. A large boulder was lying in 

 the middle of the stream, each side of 

 the stone having been hollowed into so 

 deep a concavity that it gave the ob- 

 servers the feeling that the boulder 

 was being chopped down by the brook, 

 much as a woodcutter chops into both 

 sides of a tree, and it seemed as if only 

 a little more cutting were needed be- 

 fore the stone would topple over. The 

 accompanying photograph shows this 

 excavation on the right-hand side, the 

 shadow on the left making that side 

 much less effective. 



