GEOLOGY AT OUR DOORS. 11 



tion. The houses and the herds, the wheat-fields and the 

 gardens these are accessories. But the dark, beetle-browed 

 ridge which skirts the horizon that is nature's. The green 

 forest which glides down to the field borders ; the stream which 

 winds across the landscape, and rises and falls with the rains ; 

 the low swells and the valleys between ; the outcropping ledge 

 in the field, and the loose stone by the road-side these belong 

 to nature. There, in the distance, flies the train of steam-cars, 

 its iron-bound way has been cut through hill and rock-mass, 

 and opens to our view something of the hidden material 

 which goes to form the world. There is the meadow, with its 

 green turf and deep, dark soil. The gully scored in the hill- 

 side by the summer storm, and the train of stones and sand 

 at its foot which the water tore from their hiding-places be- 

 neath the soil. Up the stream we see the tamarack swamp 

 or the open marsh, through which the head-waters flow the 

 head-waters of the main stream or of some small tributary. 

 There, just beyond, is the little lake or pond, sleeping in its 

 green-fringed nest, and looking out on the grass-covered 

 slopes and the blue sky. 



How charming is all this scenery ! How many times, im- 

 bued with the love of nature, we have strolled on the borders 

 of this quiet lakelet, or lounged on the green slope, which 

 seemed set, like an amphitheater, to accommodate the visitor, 

 who loves to look upon the scene. Perhaps, as urchins stray- 

 ing from school, or getting the most out of a Saturday holiday, 

 we have angled along this brook, or paddled our skiff over 

 this pond. Perhaps in wonderment we have seen the artist 

 from the city, with easel and brush reproducing on canvas 

 the beauty of this simple landscape, thinking to win a prize 

 in the Academy of Art, or at least to afford the pent-up 

 dwellers in the dusty town the luxury of knowing how lav- 

 ishly the beauties of nature are strewn before the gaze of those 

 who dwell here in this agricultural vale in this quiet hamlet 

 which Providence has made our home. 



This is all geology. We are in the midst of it. We have 

 been enchanted by it before we knew its name. We have 



