i6o 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



Identification was comparatively sim- 

 ple and the insight I had gained into 

 the life cycle of this beautiful and in- 

 teresting insect was attended with a 

 pleasure that no book information 

 could have given me. Moreover it 

 was impressed on my mind indelibly. 

 What I may have learned of insect 

 lore from the writings of others may 

 be soon forgotten, but that one bit of 

 insect life that was blended with a 

 brief chapter of my own life occupies 

 a bright and unfading corner in my 

 memory. 



Yesterday. 



BY ALFRED KINSEY, SOUTH ORANGE CHAP- 

 TER NO. 3. 



As part of its spring program, the 

 L. H. Nature Lovers League had ar- 

 ranged with Dr. Kummel, the New 

 Jersey State Geologist, to take any 

 boys who were interested, out over the 

 country around Summit. 



Saturday, May the 8th, found a 

 group of boys gathered in the build- 

 ing of the Y. M. C. A., Summit, listen- 

 ing to the plan for the trip. 



First we were to cross the railroad 

 and notice the morains and trap-rock 

 quarries, just east of Summit.- We 

 were told the story of hundreds of 

 centuries ago. Yesterday, for so the 

 geologist counts thirty-five thousand 

 years, was the glacial period. Moving 

 like so much cold tar, a vast ice-sheet 

 spread, with a thickness of perhaps 

 two miles, over the larger part of nor- 

 thern North America The glaciers 

 course was marked with scratches on 

 the rocks ; even whole mountains were 

 scratched out of existence. 



Then the effect of the warm south- 

 ern sun was felt, and quickly in com- 

 parison with its onward march, the 

 ice-sheet melted away, dropping its 

 burden of gravel, rocks, and boulders ; 

 so were formed new mountains, the 

 terminal morains. 



We were told that the true morains 

 are distinguished as hills built of rock 

 and gravel deposits, between which 

 hills lie level plains of sand and finer 

 gravel. 



Though Summit is built, for the 

 most part, on these morains, the for- 

 mation of the so-called First and Sec- 

 ond Mountains, must not be confused 



with the glacial period. It can easily be 

 seen how hills formed of layers of trap- 

 rock, sandstone, and shale, have lost 

 their sandstone to some extent, by ac- 

 tion of winds and rains, leaving the 

 harder trap to form the mountains ; 

 the steep western slopes being due to 

 the slant of the layers of rock. 



Toward noon we saw the glacial 

 deltas — delta-shaped bits of land built 

 by the streams of the melting ice, laid 

 out like the ribs of a fan — one of these 

 deltas seen by us, is in the form of a 

 very perfect alluvial fan — a hummock 

 built by modern winds and rains. 



An enjoyable lunch, eaten out under 

 the open sky, over, we moved on — 

 true, now in rather a straggling fashion 

 — and spent the rest of our time in 

 learning about Lake Passaic. Acting 

 as a dam, which even now would work 

 wonders, if built across the Passaic at 

 Little Falls, the glacier turned the river 

 and built "Yesterday's" vast lake, 

 thirty miles long and fifteen miles 

 wide with an average depth of two 

 hundred feet ; a lake large enough to 

 flow over almost the entire State of 

 Rhode Island. 



At the southern end of Long Hill, 

 we saw what Dr. Kummel calls one 

 of the best of geological landmarks ; 

 a vast mass of sand, rising about a 

 hundred feet, shaped like a bowl with 

 the front broken out. This is the spit 

 still standing as it was when the waves 

 of long past ages left it. 



After viewing the quarries ; learn- 

 ing that rock containing iron looks 

 red as a result of the appearance of 

 rust ; that the thinness of soil on moun- 

 tain tops is due to the earth having 

 been washed off by rains ; indeed learn- 

 ing many other things, we turned 

 homeward ; a group of boys — yes, 

 most likely tired — who had learned 

 more of the subject considered, in that 

 one walk than a year of class-room 

 work had ever taught them. 



Maybe not every one remembered 

 everything they were told, but the Na- 

 ture League, and Dr. Kummel were, 

 no doubt, repaid for their kindness by 

 the thought that every one of the boys 

 carried home with him something 

 worth remembering concerning that 

 one day's most interesting trip. 



