water, which gradually separate them into patches. These become more and more liquid, until the land, river, and sea merge imperceptibly into one another. The river, is so muddy that it might almost be called land, and the mud so saturated by water that it might well be called sea, so that one can hardly say whether a given spot is on the continent, in the river, or on the open ocean. T Oh Wunderschön ist Gottes Erde, Und schon auf ihr ein Mensch zu sein! Beautiful is God's earth, and beautiful it is to be a man thereon! CHAPTER VIII RIVERS AND LAKES ON THE DIRECTIONS OF RIVERS IN the last chapter I have alluded to the wanderings of rivers within the limits of their own valleys; we have now to consider the causes which have determined the directions of the valleys themselves. If a tract of country were raised up in the form of a boss or dome, the rain which fell on it would partly sink in, partly run away to the lower ground. The least inequality in the surface would determine the first directions of the streams, which would carry down any loose material, and thus form little channels, which would be gradually deepened and enlarged. It is as difficult for a river as for a man to get out of a groove. |