Hugust HI 



mouth, and the sad effect when the lips are drawn down- 

 wards, illustrate the same truth. For the same reason we 

 call a tree whose branches all droop towards the ground 

 a weeping willow, birch or elm, as the case may be. 



Keeping this principle in mind as we take our 

 rambles will afford a fresh subject for thought, and 

 we shall find many other illustrations confirming this 

 fact, which I have not space to touch upon now. 



ROCKS AND STONES 



In a previous note I spoke of some points of 

 interest in the formation of granite rocks, and what 

 we may discover in gravelly soils. Let us now 

 suppose ourselves in a limestone country, with its 

 granite cliffs and caverns. 



It was a delightful surprise to me to find that I 

 could actually pick up fossils in the streets at Buxton, 

 which are mended with broken limestone ; I thus 

 obtained quite a variety of museum specimens in the 

 course of a morning's walk. There are, I believe, 

 more than six hundred species of fossil shells to be 

 found in mountain limestone, besides the remains of 

 fishes, corals, and plants. 



Derbyshire abounds in curious caverns, where we 

 may see the growth of stalactites from the roof. 

 These are formed by the constant dripping of water 

 containing calcareous matter, which encrusts into long 

 spikes like icicles. The drops continually falling from 

 them also concrete upon the floor of the cavern, and 

 form masses of what is called stalagmite. 



I met with a still more curious form of this deposit 

 in a cavern at the Cheddar Cliffs. The dripping lime 

 water had there taken the form of a curtain, and hung 



