222 NATURE STUDY. 



H., a few miles west of Manchester. vSplit open ages ago 

 by the frosts of winter, the fragment represented at the 

 left in the frontispiece chanced to be poised so nicely that 

 it can be rocked, one way by hand, the other by means of 

 a small lever. The rock is one of the attractions of the 

 vicinity and has entertained thousands of visitors. 



The Solitary Walk in the Country. 



BY MARY-I,EE VAN HOOK. 



If one wants to observe Nature for himself the solitary 

 walk is the most valuable. The companionship of a con- 

 genial friend is always delightful, but how quickly the 

 character of a walk may be changed by the conversation 

 one is tempted to pursue ! If Caliban should say to us as 

 he did to Trinculo : 



" I prithee, let me bring thee to where crabs grow ; 

 And I, with my long nails, will dig thee pig-nuts ; 

 Show thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how 

 To snare the nimMe marmoset ; I'll bring thee 

 To clustering filberts ; and sometimes I'll get thee 

 Young sea-mells from the rock. Wilt thou go with me? " 



I think we should go. But any less wild and woodsy a 

 creature than this would surely distract us from our real 

 purpose, which is to learn as much as we can about the 

 wild things that grow or stir about us. 



To see the little animals at their best, the birds and the 

 squirrels, is not to find them terrified and fleeing from us, 

 their enemies, but to watch them going about the ordinary 

 course of their business. It is possible so to watch them, 

 sometimes for long periods, if we adopt some of the ways 

 of the animals themselves. You have watched a robin 

 when he hears a noise and seen how still he becomes, how 

 he tilts his head to one side and listens ; often a worm, if 

 touched, will become rigid, as if dead. By sitting down 



