3O TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 







the ice ploughed over the rocks. Some of the stones 

 at the top are to-day brilliant with the polish left by 

 the slowly grinding ice. The very ruins of the moun- 

 tain were carried far away to the south-east, and scat- 

 tered over the State of New Jersey. Wherever we 

 find as in New England, on Long Island, through 

 New York, New Jersey, and even farther west 

 rounded hills of gravel, we know the great glaciers 

 once covered all the land deep in ice. When at last 

 the seasons grew warmer, year by year the ice disap- 

 peared, till now there is not a trace of it except in the 

 terrible ruin it wrought. Wherever you see a rounded 

 hill of gravel, you may be sure that once the ice was 

 at work making new soils. This Schunemunk Moun- 

 tain thus contributed to the soils of New Jersey, and 

 other mountains and hills far to the north sent down 

 their remains on the ice to make the surface soil of 

 the valleys all about old Schunemunk. So great was 

 the movement of soils caused by the ice of the glacial 

 period, that in this part of the country we cannot be 

 sure that the soil near any hills all came from the hills 

 themselves : it may have come from hills a hundred 

 miles away. 



These changes, with others of equal magnitude, 

 form what is called the geological history of the soil ; 

 and, if you have time, it will be well worth the while 

 to study it still more. In brief it is this : The rocks 

 were first formed, and then torn down by the weather ; 

 sorted, moved about, and re-arranged into new soils 

 and new rocks ; and again all was overturned, ground 



