2 OUTLINES OF FIELD-GEOLO< ;v - RAP, 



awakened only a feeling of horror ; when they were styled 

 hideous, and unsightly ; when they were nt \ 

 save under the necessities ot md were always left 



behind with a sense of relief. Relics of these feelings 

 survive to us in such phrases as wild, savage, uncouth, 

 with which we still describe that mountain-world, on 

 object of awe and fear, now the centre to whi< h a yearly 



i sing crowd of visitors repairs for some of the j 

 pleasures and most healthful recreation which this world 

 lias to afford. With the growth of an appreciation of 

 natural scenery in all its forms, rugged as well as gentle, 

 there has arisen also a desire to know on what < 

 these diversities of outline depend. \Ve arc not now 

 content as our fathers were to accept the present aspect 

 of a country as that which it has worn from the beginning 

 of time. And even if no intelligible answer can be given 

 to them, the questions I have referred to will ever and 

 anon force themselves on our attention. 



Nor is it only the larger and more impressive features 

 of the landscape which suggest such inquiries. A 

 boulder perched on some slope or on the edge of a 

 crag, seemingly so perilously poised that a mere push 

 with the hand should send it rolling into the plain 

 below, will raise in our minds the questions why the 

 block should have stopped where it is, whence did it 

 come, how was it carried, and what arrested it there ? On 

 either side of a soft, well -cultivated valley we may 

 perhaps detect, peeping out at intervals from among the 

 woodlands, orchards, and cottages, a strong rib of rock, 

 forming everywhere a marked feature, with its gray, 

 lichen-crusted face, deep fern-hung shadows and tufts of 



