CHAPTER XI 
More About the Web of Life—The Soil 
If I were to read a book, and I came to a chapter called 
“Soil/' I think I should be tempted to skip it, because 
“Soil” seems such a dull subject. How, I might ask, can 
anyone find a story in the soil ? 
Fossil Fish 
But there is a story in the soil. The soil, you know, is 
the topmost layer of the earth’s surface, and it is made 
of rocks, all crumbled and shaken and beaten to bits by 
time and tempest, by snow and ice and sleet and the fierce 
heat of the sun. You yourself have seen rocks crumble 
and flake. Rain and frost, sudden changes from heat 
to cold, cause the rocks to swell and shrink again so that 
small pieces are chipped off. Rain seeps into the rocks 
and melts some of the material holding them together so 
that the surface falls away in a loose, powdery mass. 
This has been going on for years and years, for ages and 
