36 WALKS AND TALKS. 



left his mother-rock, and most of his kindred, in the woods of 

 northern Maine, or New Hampshire, or on the shore of Lake 

 Superior. A large number of his kindred came with him. 

 He rode part of the way on the back of a glacier. By and 

 by he fell off, or got into a hole ; and after that he had a severe 

 squeezing. He got crushed and rubbed and rolled and pushed 

 for some thousands of years. But every year he made some 

 progress. By and by there was a great change of weather. 

 The ice-carriage melted away from him, and fine weather re- 

 turned, and lo! he found himself, one spring, in this field. 

 That was long enough before Adam and Eve set up business 

 in gardening. But here old Hard Head has been lying ever 

 since. And now, we are the very first persons who ever 

 stopped to pay him a moment's attention, and make his 

 acquaintance." 



If old Hard Head thinks, he is revolving some handsome 

 compliments on our intelligence. Whatever old Hard Head 

 may think, we are sure the ability to learn something of the 

 method of the world was given us to be exercised. If we go 

 stupidly through the world, without exercising that ability, we 

 do no better than an ox. But if we seek to gain an insight 

 into the method and history of the world, we honor the Author 

 of the world ; we read His thoughts. Knowing some of His 

 thoughts, we come into more intimate relations with 

 him. The study of science is a virtue. Attention to 

 geology is a human duty. 



To complete our introduction to old Hard Head we must 

 know his name. To call him old Hard Head is like calling a 

 man " Old Russian" or " Old Englishman." He has, besides, 

 his personal name. Now, there is a way of finding out the 

 particular name of each rock. Like a dog with his 

 name on his collar, each mute rock displays a name writ- 

 ten on its exterior. Let us look into this subject a few 

 minutes. 



Do you see that nearly all these bowlders appear to be 

 mixtures of different colors and kinds of rocks? See one 

 rock with round pebbles white, red, black imbedded in a 



