TER PAGE

I.--INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NATURE 1
II.--WAYS AND MEANS OF STUDYING NATURE 9
III.--THE STELLAR REALM 31
IV.--THE EARTH 81
V.--THE ATMOSPHERE 97
VI.--GLACIERS 207
VII.--THE WORK OF UNDERGROUND WATER 250
VIII.--THE SOIL 313
IX.--THE ROCKS AND THEIR ORDER 349

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.

FACING PAGE

Dunes at Ipswich Light, Massachusetts _Frontispiece_
Seal Rocks near San Francisco, California 33
Lava stream, in Hawaiian Islands, flowing into the sea 72
Waterfall near Gadsden, Alabama 90
South shore, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts 121
Pocket Creek, Cape Ann, Massachusetts 163
Muir Glacier, Alaska 207
Front of Muir Glacier 240
Mount AEtna, seen from near Catania 201
Mountain gorge, Himalayas, India 330

OUTLINES OF THE EARTH'S HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NATURE.

The object of this book is to give the student who is about to enter
on the study of natural science some general idea as to the conditions
of the natural realm. As this field of inquiry is vast, it will be
possible only to give the merest outline of its subject-matter, noting
those features alone which are of surpassing interest, which are
demanded for a large understanding of man's place in this world, or
which pertain to his duties in life.

In entering on any field of inquiry, it is most desirable that the
student should obtain some idea as to the ways in which men have been
led to the knowledge which they possess concerning the world about
them. Therefore it will be well briefly to sketch the steps by which
natural science has come to be what it is. By so doing we shall
perceive how much we owe to the students of