274 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



distinguished geologist holds that over this elevated 

 table-land (it was not elevated then, but is supposed to 

 owe its rise to volcanic action) once a river ran, disem- 

 boguing at the point where the conical mound rises, 

 and which, therefore, may be simply an accumulated 

 deposit of drift. Some party, in old time, perchance, 

 had a jetty there. Anyhow, this hillock is so steep 

 that we cannot plough its sides ; and to plant it would 

 be to throw an undue shade on the adjacent corn-field. 

 In our despair, certainly, last year we did plant it, and 

 in greater despair the plantation died ; this year, then, as 

 the steep sides look to the east, south, and west, the 

 frigid north wind being well shielded off by the rising 

 back -ground, so that it is a hot quarter rather than 

 otherwise, I propose to begin at the bottom, and dig or 

 break it up with picks to a considerable depth, after a 

 teri'ace fashion (as we see the hill-sides treated along 

 the Rhine). The outside edge of the step shall be 

 higher, or, in other words, the steps shall slope back 

 from the outside edge at an angle of 20 deg. down- 

 wards, so that, when rain falls, it shall soak into the 

 sandy rock and soil at the hollows of the staircase, 

 instead of washing off the lips of the steps. Once 

 deeply worked, I expect and hope that we may make 

 a plot, now useless except as a rabbit-lair, of garden 

 value, for the raising of cabbage-plants, &c. At least, 

 it is worth the experiment ; while our occupation will 

 be as interesting as healthful. 



Having occasion to open a quarry for the purpose of 

 making the river jetties, I observed, four feet under the 

 surface soil — the hole having been worked into a bank 

 — a regular incrustation of lime, which seemed to have 

 filtered through, and had gathered in cakes about the 



