FIEESIDE SCIENCE. 



THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 



O PKINGS of water are possible upon our earth 

 only from the fact that its various strata or lay- 

 ers have been upheaved from their original beds by 

 internal or volcanic forces. It is indeed curious, 

 that the sparkling spring or brook which breaks 

 from the hillside and meanders through the meadow, 

 an emblem of purity and peace, is born of the' earth 

 quake, and exists only in consequence of the terri 

 ble havoc which fire and gases have made of the 

 rocky ribs of mother earth. 



The elementary facts of geology are sufficient to 

 make plain to every one the truth, that the crust of 

 the earth is not composed of a homogeneous mass of 

 rock with a thin covering of soil superimposed upon 

 it, but rather, that it is made up of a series of strata 

 lying one over another, these having been formed 

 from the deposition of sedimentary matter at the 

 bottom of oceans and seas in former epochs of the 

 world's history. The layers have solidified from 

 various causes, and become rock of one kind and 

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