THE TWO GREAT SCULPTORS. 109 
sun dried the earth again cracks were formed, so 
that the next shower loosened it still more, and carried 
some of the mud down into the valley below. But 
here and there large stones were buried in the clay, 
and where this happened the rain could not penetrate, 
and the stones became the tops of tall pillars of clay, 
washed into shape by the rain beating on its sides, but 
escaping the general destruction of the rest of the 
mud. In this way the whole valley has been carved 
out into fine pillars, some still having capping-stones, 
while others have lost them, and these last will soon 
be washed away. You may sometimes see tiny pillars 
under bridges or the hollows worn by the continual 
dripping of the rain from the eaves of a house, where 
the water has washed away the earth between the peb- 
bles, and such small examples which you can observe 
for yourselves are quite as instructive as more impor- 
tant ones. 
We have much finer and larger earth pillars in 
our own country. A celebrated geologist, Mr. Prest- 
wich, says in speaking of some that he saw in Wyo- 
ming : " For about three miles along the side of South 
River and for half a mile in width the wooded slopes 
are studded by hundreds of these monuments, some 
of which rise to the height of four hundred feet, the 
average being from sixty to eighty feet. High spruce 
trees of great size seem like dwarfs by the side of 
these mighty columns, each one of which is capped by 
a boulder." The soil beneath these great earth pillars 
is of a soft and crumbling character. 
Another way in which rain changes the surface of 
the earth is by sinking down through loose soil from 
