SUBIACO. THE PICTURESQE.
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golden wheat or maise beneath it. In fine, all the shapesand colours of ground and trees, of rocks and mountains,offer the most relieving contrasts, in which picturesque har-mony consists. But pray, gentle reader, look at the view fromRichmond Hill, or any other hill of celebrated prospect, inthis country of England. What a pity that our anxiouseyes never discern any other trees, than elm, elm, elm,—with here and there, horse-chesnuts, horse-chesnuts; all ourpublic parks elm, all our roads elm, in every hedge-row elmor else horse-chesnut, horse-chesnut! Hence the monotony :often have I thought what a great pity it is, that over theentire face of this fine country, such comparatively worth-less trees as elms and horse-chesnuts should be exclusivelyplanted. Why not oaks and walnuts. Of the importanceof the former, I need not speak; of the latter both thetimber and the fruit are very valuable.
From the summit of a range of table-land at length we hada clear view of both the seas on one side and on the otherof the Peninsula. Other mountain-rocky ranges were farabove us, but it was superfluous to climb them. I only,being much intent upon the subject of bowlders of which Ihad but recently obtained a clear idea, discovered that in thedeep ravines and roaring torrents, which intersect this coun-try, such specimens of bowlders might be found, in all thevarious stages of their formation, as might suggest even to aDoctor Silliman or a Professor Buckland, a rational expla-nation of the phenomenon. •
A torrent is divided into two, by an insular hill or rock,or a large mass fall into it from above. The loose earthyparts are washed away. At length a mass of rock becomesisolated, undermined, smoothed and rounded by the frictionof the waters and of the stones they carry along. Ages passaway, and the rushing waters have laid the bowlder bare andround. A flood may then propel it down the sloping bed of