Chapter XI 



Rocks 



IT is a doubtful task to make rocks, and where 

 Nature does not supply the real thing in the 

 neighborhood so that it can be blasted and built 

 up again in its old form, no one can quite reach 

 his ideal by any imitation. 



But there is a middle course for which Na- 

 ture likewise supplies models ; that is, masses of ^ 

 heaped-up stones driven together by floods or 

 mountain streams, which, without human agency, 

 present something of a rocky character and are 

 at least extremely picturesque. 



This genre can be well imitated, and one only 

 needs to be careful to make such piles consistent 

 by allowing isolated pieces of rock to lie about 

 in the vicinity and by placing the rocks so that 

 they emerge from earth, plantation, or water, 

 and are only partially visible, never in their whole 

 circumference. They may also occasionally be 

 connected with a stretch of wall built of blasted 

 field stone, as if, for some purpose, say recon- 

 structing a bridge or supporting a steep bank, 

 one had merely taken advantage of the rocks 

 which had naturally accumulated and had sup- 

 plemented the rest with a wall for the same 

 purpose. This supplies the opportunity to col- 



