186 THE EARTH MADE READY FOR MAN 



brook, they often give up a part of themselves and are 

 drops of water no longer. They unite with the atoms 

 they are laying down and form some of the most 

 beautiful and wonderful things in God's universe. 



Can you guess what these wonderful things are 

 that the underground water makes in the cracks 

 and holes of the rocks? Yes, they are crystals. 

 Crystals of quartz, of emerald, of amethyst, of 

 diamonds, of garnets, of topazes, of copper and 

 even of salt. Some are clear and transparent like 

 the quartz and sapphires, some are red, some blue, 

 some green and pink and yellow and purple and 

 black. The different colors are quite as beautiful 

 as those of flowers, and yet they are made so far 

 below the ground that no light can reach them. 

 You shall learn later how they came afterward to 

 be so near the surface that we can find and see 

 them. 



It takes a long time for the drops of rain water to 

 dissolve the atoms in the heart of the rocks as they 

 sink deeper and deeper, but warm raindrops can 

 seem to take almost any mineral away from those 

 deep down rocks because they are under pressure. 

 The brook can take a rock or bowlder and quickly 

 roll it along because it is strong from the combined 

 force of many drops working together. 



But the underground drops have to work very 

 slowly and patiently. One sinks dgwn and takes a 

 few atoms, then others follow, all going the same 

 way and all taking away with them in solution, like 

 the salt in the glass of water, some of those tiny 

 particles. And then instead of ever reaching the 



