THE EARTH'S CLOTHING. 5 



Another day we may take the New- Haven road, and 

 go out as far as Stamford in Connecticut. Here we 

 find something wholly different. The land is hilly. 

 There are very few level meadows, except along the 

 shore of the sound. Through the grass in the fields 

 appear many gray rocks covered with moss and lichens. 

 The roads are gray and stony and the fields have 

 none of that uniform red color we saw in New Jersey, 

 but show every shade of brown and dark yellow. An- 

 other day we may take the Long-Island Railroad, 

 and go out towards Far Rockaway. Here is quite an- 

 other country, more level, with whiter fields and more 

 sandy roads. Still another expedition may take us up 

 the Hudson by boat, and in two or three hours we are 

 sailing among steep mountains covered everywhere 

 with forests. 



These observations of different places about New 

 York show us that the surface of the earth is full of 

 variety in shape, in color, and character. The ground 

 is composed in part of rocks, of sand and gravel, 

 and many other things. If you are unable to make 

 these journeys about New York, look around your 

 home, wherever it may be, and you will discover that 

 the ground varies in color, surface, and in materials, 

 in every place. You may live upon a prairie, where all 

 the ground seems, as far as you can see, to be every- 

 where the same ; yet even here there will be differences 

 between one field and another. Examine the country 

 about your home in four different directions, north, 

 south, east, and west, as far as you can conveniently 



