THE HISTORY OF THE GROUND. 23 



since the rocks began. The weathering of the rocks 

 degrades and denudes the mountains, and this very 

 destruction is for the benefit of the valley. These 

 broken and shattered stones are melting away into 

 sand and dust, and this sand and dust helps to make 

 the soil out of which spring flowers and fruits and 

 crops of every kind. Faster or slower, forever and 

 forever, the work will go on till the mountains are 

 brought low, and the rough places are made plain. 

 Out of ruin and destruction come ever life and 

 beauty. Even the outline of this rubbish and wreck, 

 swept down from the mountain, makes a beautiful 

 curve against the sky. They call such a sloping mass 

 of waste and broken material at the foot of a mountain 

 or cliff, a talus. We see the talus about the base of 

 nearly every rocky hill, and we recognize its outline 

 by its wonderful beauty. 



. VI. THE SOIL MOVERS AND SORTERS. In 

 our excursion to the pudding-stone on Schunemunk, 

 we observed the influence of the weather upon the 

 rocks. We saw that heat and cold, water, air, rain, 

 and storms, tended to tear down and degrade the 

 mountain. If near our homes we found other examples 

 of this weathering of the rocks, it was only to find 

 illustrations of the same thing, showing that the work 

 is universal, and not confined to this single mountain 

 in the Highlands of the Hudson. All who live in the 

 level portions of the country, and are unable to find 

 near their homes examples of this work, will simply 

 note the fact that this work does go on in all hills, 



