just as the human sculptor gives expression to his statue.

Our work to-day will consist in trying to form some idea of the
way in which water thus carves out the surface of the earth, and
we will begin by seeing how much can be done by our old friends
the rain-drops before they become running streams.

Everyone must have noticed that whenever rain falls on soft
ground it makes small round holes in which it
collects, and then sinks into the ground, forcing its way
between the grains of earth. But you would hardly think that the
beautiful pillars in Fig. 24 have been made entirely in this way
by rain beating upon and soaking into the ground.

Where these pillars stand there was once a solid mass of clay and
stones, into which the rain-drops crept, loosening the earthly
particles; and then when the 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. We have no such valleys of earth-pillars here in England,
but you may sometimes see tiny pillars under bridges where the
drippings have washed away the earth between the pebbles, and
such small examples which you can observe for yourselves are