516 NATURE STUDY. 



another kind of soil.' 4 Yes, clay. I wonder if we can find how this 

 is made.' A glance up the cliff, and more quickly, because of the 

 discovery regarding the sand, the children told this story. As they 

 climbed the bluffs their attention was called to the condition of the 

 rocks near the top ; and the children- described just how they were 

 constantly breaking off, and tumbling to pieces at the foot, split up 

 by water and Jack Frost. 



The next day their pieces of rock and samples of soils furnished 

 the text of an enthusiastic recitation, after which they wrote interest- 

 ing and thoroughly individual accounts of their trip, which was not 

 a picnic, but a live, earnest lesson." 



THE WORK OF RAIN AND OF RUNNING WATER. 



Our children have learned of the value of water in their 

 homes and in the air and sky. Perhaps they have discov- 

 ered how water and frost make the soil, by breaking up 

 the rocks, and hastening the decay of the leaves. Water is 

 also the greatest agent in shaping the earth, in carving its 

 hills, and in digging its valleys. Cannot we give the boys 

 and girls in the upper primary grades some idea of what 

 water is doing on and in the ground, and how it is doing 

 it, and thereby lay further foundations for real earth study 

 when they reach the geography work in later years ? 



In no one line of work is there greater need and oppor- 

 tunity for out-of-door study than in geography, and prob- 

 ably no season is better for this than April and May. The 

 soil is in a condition to be easily affected by the spring rains, 

 and the erosive forces at work, and the effect of these 

 forces, can be seen almost anywhere. These excursions 

 need not be to any great distance ; often a trip of a block 

 or two will bring the party to a hill or valley or brook, a 

 cut or ditch or mud-puddle, affording excellent oppor- 

 tunities for the study of the action of water in erosion, 

 transportation, and deposit. 



The boys and girls in the elementary schools, and par- 

 ticularly in the lower grades, will have their geographical 



