I Ol'TI.IM 5 Ol II! LD-G1 BAP, 



blithe with plough and harrow, and might risk <>m 

 how and win n theM- rcvolu: : In the 



course of another walk we might stumble upon a bit of 

 stone made up of rounded pebbles cemented top 

 as if a handful of gravel from some river -side had 

 hardened into stone. Could this fragment also 



original locality, we should find it to h;, . 

 jxirt of a larger l>ed or mass <.f what is called conglo- 

 merate or puddingstone, and we should reco 

 more the exact resemblance of the constituent stones of 

 this rock to the shingle of a sea-shore, or the gravel of a 

 river-bed. We could not for a moment doubt that the 

 rock must be merely so much compacted \ 

 gravel. But where lay the water by which these stones 

 were rounded and polished ? Was it the sea, or a lake, 

 or a river? What was the aspect of the country then, 

 and through what cycles of change has it passed to 

 its present condition ? 



Thus even to one who knows no geology, the problems 

 of the science are presented at every turn and in 

 country ramble. When, however, some acquainuiK i- 

 with this science has been gained, the number of questions 

 which arise for solution rapidly increases, and with their 

 growth there augments also the power of answering them, 

 or at least the pleasure of seeking for their solution. The 

 observer, as he finds his knowledge and consequently his 

 confidence enlarged, discovers, on the one hand, that facts 

 which he took for granted, and which never raised in his 

 mind any question or difficulty, now demand some ex- 

 planation, and, on the other, that he has to disabuse him- 

 self of many prejudices or notions which grew up in his 



