1 8 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



taring the woods, the ground is found to be very rough. 

 Through the thin grass can be seen irregular fragments 

 of hard stone. On advancing up the hill, these rocks 

 become more plentiful, till at last the ground is 

 completely covered with sharp rough stones of every 

 shape. Presently we see among these ragged rocks 

 great numbers of smooth round pebbles. As we go 

 on, these become more common, and we find many 

 lumps or masses of pebbles bound together, and look- 

 ing much like plums in a pudding. We recognize 

 these as pieces of " pudding-stone." The first rock 

 broken into irregular pieces is quite different in color 

 and texture, and is a trap-rock. The particular names 

 of these rocks are not now important. The thing to 

 observe is that something has smashed and broken 

 these rocks in pieces. These rocks were evidently 

 once solid masses. Now they are only ruins, the shat- 

 tered remains of some mountain. We climb upward 

 in search of an answer. At every step the hill grows 

 steeper, the fragments of rocks larger and more irregu- 

 lar. At last we reach a scene of the wildest ruin and 

 confusion. Huge fragments of the pudding-stone lie 

 piled one over the other, as if hurled down from 

 the mountain-top. Here a mass weighing tons has 

 ploughed deep into the ground, raising a mass of rough 

 gravel before it as it slid down the mountain. Here a 

 great lump has shot half-way through a tree, and is 

 barely supported at one end as if ready to fall with a 

 crash down the hill. A fallen tree with every leaf 

 withered and yellow has a splintered trunk, and when 



