Travels in a Tree-top 35 



" Perhaps it is not so stupid as it looks," 

 I replied. " Let's take a walk." 



I knew what the book described at which 

 the lad had been looking, and had guessed 

 his thoughts. We started for a ramble. 



" Let us follow this little brook as far as 

 we can," I suggested, and see what a stupid 

 country can teach us," purposely quoting my 

 companion's words, with a little emphasis. 



Not fifty rods from beautiful old trees the 

 collected waters, as a little brook, flowed 

 over an outcropping of stiff clay, and here 

 we voluntarily paused, for what one of us 

 had seen a hundred times before was now 

 invested with new interest. There was here 

 not merely a smooth scooping out of a mass 

 of the clay, to allow the waters to pass swiftly 

 by ; the least resisting veins or strata, those 

 containing the largest percentage of sand, had 

 yielded quickly and been deeply gullied, 

 while elsewhere the stiff, black ridges, often 

 almost perpendicular, still withstood the cur- 

 rent, and, confining the waters to narrow 

 limits, produced a series of miniature rapids 

 and one whirlpool that recalled the head- 

 waters of many a river. 



Near by, where, when swollen by heavy 



