THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PEBBLE STRANGE ADVENTURES IN NATURE'S WONDERLANDS THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PEBBLE BY HALLAM HAWKSWORTH AUTHOR OF "THE ADVENTURES OF A GRAIN OF DUST" CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON Copyright, 1921, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS A THE SCRIBNER PRESS PREFACE The purpose of this little book is to present the chief features in the strange story of the pebbles; and so of the larger pebble we call the earth. It is hoped that readers of various ages will be entertained, without suspecting that they are being taught. Several things led the author to believe that such a book might be wanted. (_a_) The circumstances under which it was written. (_b_) The fact that there seemed to be an opportunity for improvement not only in the popular presentation of scientific topics but in the character and method of review questions and suggestions following such topics in school texts. (_c_) Experience has shown that pictures may be made to perform a much more vital function in teaching than is usually assigned to them in the text-books.[1] [Footnote 1: On this subject I cannot do better, perhaps, than quote from an article on "The Picture Book in Education," contributed to the New York _Evening Post_: "We learn more easily by looking at things than by memorizing words about them. The principle, of course, holds whether the image which the eye receives comes from the object itself or only from the picture of the object. Therefore we should learn to read pictures as well as books. "New York has long recognized the added efficiency in the teaching process to be obtained from the use of pictures. The Division of Visual Instruction, established thirty years ago, has an international reputation for the extent of its equipment, the simplicity of its methods, and the excellence of its results."] (_d_) In the particular field to which this story relates comparatively little has been written either for reading in the family circle or for use in the school; although the relation of physiography, not only to human history and political and commercial geography but to the whole immense realm of natural science, is so basic and its great principles and processes so striking in their appeal to curiosity and our sense of the grand and the dramatic.[2] [Footnote 2: Commenting on the need of popular literature dealing with earth science, Doctor Shaler says: