UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 25 



On them. Little Charles is beginning to be use- 

 ful; his understanding is quick, and he already 

 speaks plain English. The Franklins keep him 

 always with them, without seeming to watch 

 him ; in hopes of breaking the habit of pilfering. 

 His relations are not inclined to take him, so 

 that my aunt will have a full opportunity of try- 

 ing her benevolent experiment. 



~LWi. Caroline and I had a long walk, and a 

 long conversation to-day with my uncle, about 

 the alluvial changes on the surface of the earth . 

 I wish I could tell you all he said ; I can only 

 give you a little sketch of it. 



(l Since the last great and general convulsion 

 produced by the deluge, many gradual changes 

 have occurred, and are everyday occurring, from 

 causes which we may easily trace. We see de- 

 struction going on in one place, and new forma- 

 tions in another; we find headlands and cliffs 

 undermined and washed away by the incessant 

 action of the waves \ and we as often find the 

 materials, thus carried off, thrown up again, and 

 forming either extensive tracts of new land along 

 the less exposed parts of the coast, or new banks 

 and shoals in the adjoining sea. The action of 

 frost and snow, and rain, have all a similar ten- 

 dency : ice, by swelling in the rifts and crevices 

 of the rocks, detaches small portions ; the rain 

 washes away the finer parts ; the melting snow, 



D 



