STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH.

the Humber near the junction of the Trent and Ouse; thence it passes through the western edge of Lincolnshire, and traverses the counties of Nottingham, Leicester, Warwick, and Gloucester; its breadth in this part of its course being pretty uniformly about six miles. Hence, the main body proceeds, in nearly a southernly direction, through Somersetshire to the coast of Dorset, while a broken line of the same skirts along the southern shore of the Bristol channel as far as Watchet, and appears on the northern shore in detached patches in the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan. The entire thickness of this deposit is perhaps about two hundred and fifty feet.

Objects such as these should, therefore, be examined, especially when it is remembered that we owe so many of our advantages as a nation to the physical character of our island. Not only does it yield us stores of metals and of ores, of limestones and of sandstones, of salts and of minerals, and, above all, of coal, but most of them are placed in situations and under circumstances best calculated to render them beneficial. At periods far remote, the Carthaginians and Phoenicians traded with our ancestors for lead and tin, and, up to the present time, countries far distant from our own and each other, owe to us many of their advantages. Had these

resources been less amply or less favourably bestowed, we should have been deficient in the supply of our own necessities, and unable to relieve the wants of others.

"If," says Mr. G. F. Richardson, "the granite of the Scottish mountains had extended as far as the South Downs of Kent and Sussex; or if the chalk of our southern shores had reached to the Grampian hills, our social and commercial condition would have presented a dreary contrast to the scene of energy, enterprise, and wealth which it now presents. If, on the other hand, the granite had prevailed throughout the entire island, we should have been placed in a country, picturesque, it is true, in its general outline, abounding in the alternations of mountain and of vale; of hill and of glen; relieved by the torrent, the waterfall, and the lake; and embellished with a profuse, though monotonous vegetation; while the rocks beneath would have afforded occasional supplies of precious metals, and yielded veins of tin, copper, silver, and gold: but the climate would have been severe; its productions limited and few; its population scanty, scattered, and poor; and we should have continued a race of miners and mountaineers: or, on the other hand, had the chalk extended over the whole country, we should have possessed extensive pastures and sheep-walks, and

EVENING.

should have become a community of shepherds, grazing our flocks on the hills, and cultivating a confined and partial vegetation in the valleys and fissures of the chalk. In neither case should we have attained that prosperity and eminence which we now so happily enjoy; since we should have been destitute of those natural advantages, which constitute the basis of our national prosperity and power; and which, from the chalk of our southern shores, to the granitic formation of the north; from the South Downs of Sussex to the Grampian hills; and from the clay lands of the east to the metallic districts of the west; from the fields of Essex to the mines of Cornwall, yield a store of benefits, calculated not only to enrich ourselves, but to render us the dispensers of the best blessings to regions the most distant and remote."

To the days of summer our observations should not be limited. Well may we say :

"Come, Evening, once again, season of peace,
Return, sweet Evening, and continue long!
Methinks I see thee in the streaky west,

With matron step slow-moving, while the night

Treads on thy sweeping train; one hand employed
In letting fall the curtain of repose

On bird and beast, the other charged for man,

A star or two, just twinkling on thy brow,
Suffices thee; save that the moon is thine,
No less than hers, not worn indeed so high
With ostentatious pageantry, but set

With modest grandeur in thy purple zone;
Resplendent less, but of an ampler round."

It is sometimes supposed that the female glowworm alone is luminous, but many males have been taken having luminous segments.

And there are the stars; consult some work, and give them the attention they should not fail to receive. Many of great interest may be observed at this season of the year. And then the inquiries they suggest are calculated to inform and elevate the mind.

What a

view is thus furnished of the vastness of the universe!

a view adapted deeply to affect us with the greatness of God, and our insignificance.