Idb' L. E. HICKS — SOME ELEMENTS OE LAND SCULPTURE. 



and marl, in which the rainfall is absorbed and reaches the rivers by 

 slow percolation, instead of flowing quickly and copiously On the sur- 

 face ; hence, if there are any floods at all. they are infrequent and 

 irregular. Without regular floods there can he no distinct flood-plain, 

 the silt deposited during the rare overflows being obscured and sub- 

 ordinated to the heterogeneous wash from the hills. The patchy char- 

 acter of the soil arises from local conditions affecting the wind drifts and 

 washings from the bluffs, bringing down here gravel, yonder sand, and 

 again the mingled silicious. calcareous and argillaceous elements consti- 

 tuting loam. Alkaline carbonates and sulphates are developed in low, 

 undrained spots, where water lies and evaporates. By the meanderings 

 of the channel the valley floor is plowed up and redeposited, but this 

 process tends to still greater differences rather than greater uniformity. 

 The assorting action of the currents segregates the coarser and finer ele- 

 ments and deposits each by it-self. The absence of floods intensities and 

 perpetuates these diversities. No general 1 danket of rich silt is spread in 

 annual layers to cover and blend into one the heterogeneous soils, nor 

 do the copious waters spread over the alkali patches to dilute and wash 

 out their bitterness. Thus arise these anomalous, wide valleys without 

 flood-plains, in which the whole valley floor from the bluffs to the 

 channel on either side slopes sharply inward, and the soils are patchy 

 and wholly unlike ordinary bottom lands. 



Summary. 



This paper makes no pretensions to an exhaustive treatment of the 

 elements of land sculpture. There are other forces at work, and the forces 

 named operate in ways not herein discussed in detail; but in the broad, 

 general view of the subject the face of nature is moulded chiefly by these 

 forces : (1) Upheaval, which furnishes the structural blocks to be chiseled 

 into pleasing forms ; (2) Weathering, which rounds off the asperities and 

 covers the land with graceful, swelling curves; (3) Washing of water. 

 which yields concave flowing lines upon slopes of erosion, and low con- 

 vex curves of deposition. 



The combination of the weather curve with the water curve of erosion 

 is here noted and explained for the first time. It constitutes the greatest 

 charm of natural landscapes, and its effects are universal. 



