THE HILLSIDE SPRING AND ITS WORK. 33 



stream is supplied by springs. It gets directly from rains 

 only so much as flows from the surface of the basin which 

 the river drains. Most of the rain falling within the basin, 

 however, sinks into the ground, and finds its way into the 

 stream only in the form of spring water. But when a stream 

 flows over a drift-formed bed, much water wastes away. Be- 

 sides this, many deep water-basins convey their contents under 

 the river. So the river never contains the whole amount of 

 water which falls within the basin which it drains. 



Suppose all the water-basins under a township or a county 

 should cease to exist, what would become of wells and springs ? 

 You understand at once that they would dry up. Therefore 

 the streams would dry up. The water would settle to the 

 Bowlder Clay or the bed-rock, and there would be the only 

 accumulation. Every well must then be sunk to that depth 

 even if it were two hundred feet. And wells would be the 

 only resort, for of springs there would be none ; of brooks 

 there would be none; of ponds and lakelets there would be 

 none. Then, again, the Drift sands being so dry, little evap- 

 oration would take place from the earth's surface. The air 

 would be dry ; no dew would condense ; no clouds would 

 form, and so the rains would stop descending, unless some 

 other region could supply us with clouds. How beneficent, J 

 then, are the clay-beds! Literally, they are all which saves 

 many a fertile region from becoming a desert and an unin- 

 habitable waste. We looked carelessly at these courses of 

 sands and clays exposed in the railroad cut, and thought, per- 

 haps, they only served to form a pile of earth for the rail- 

 road builder to cart into the neighboring filling. How 

 admirably the constitution of the Drift is suited to human wants ! 

 To us it looks as if it had been an intentional preparation for 

 man. There are persons, however, who prefer to say it is not 

 so ; but man is here only because the situation is one which 

 permits him to be here. But we are sure, at least, that a 

 happy coordination exists between our necessities and our sur- 

 roundings ; and the constitution of things which brings enjoy- 

 ment out of the coordination is a beneficient constitution. 



