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freedom, and perhaps you may see one of these perched 

 upon a stone by the brook dipping his little bill into 

 the refreshing waters, lifting his head at every sup. 

 Yes, a picture like this is well worth looking upon. In 

 it are no touches of the artist's brush or draughtsman's 

 pencil, but all is the beauty of natural grandeur. 

 These are no fancy imaginations or fairy tales for such 

 scenes are to be found in all parts of the world. 



In as much as fossils are usually found in and among 

 rocks, it would be well to mention them here. First 

 what are fossils? They are the remains of animals 

 and plants which have been buried by natural causes. 

 Usually the soft parts of the organisms have disap- 

 peared leaving only the harder portions. Sometimes 

 the soft material is removed and gradually replaced by 

 mineral matter which becomes hard. In this condition 

 they are called petrifactions, some of which are very 

 curious. Sometimes the mere impression of a former- 

 ly existing animal or plant is all that remains. These 

 have been found stamped on rocks under ground, as the 

 feet of some beast, or delicate fern-like impressions of 

 some plant. Many of these are imperfect and defaced 

 while others are wholly entire and beautiful. In this 

 way a faint idea may be obtained of the appearance of 

 extinct vegetation and animal life. Some remains 

 show that the animals in those times were of enormous 

 size, far surpassing those of the present age. Such, 

 for instance, was the mastodon, a large creature with 

 two great tusks. 



The divisions of the Geological time are interesting. 

 The Azoic time, or that period when there was no life, 

 the Paleozoic time or the period when the plants and 



