chap, vii THE SASSENDAL in 



for the ponies, and decided on following the right bank. 

 The actual pass is wide and swampy. A stream, descending 

 from the hill on the north, divides and sends one branch 

 down Advent Vale, the other to the Sassendal, clearly an 

 unstable arrangement. Formerly this stream went wholly 

 down Advent Vale. Soon all its waters will have been 

 robbed for the Sassendal by the backward creeping Esker 

 Valley. The watershed between Advent Vale and the Sas- 

 sendal used to be close to the left bank of the latter. The 

 Esker Valley was one, though not the longest, of the upper 

 branches of Advent Vale. In a manner to be presently 

 described the old head of the Esker Valley was cut down 

 and became its mouth, and the slope of the valley has 

 gradually been turned the other way. The process of eating 

 back is steadily continuing. Brent Pass will be eaten away, 

 and the Advent River will suffer a further diminution 

 of its head- waters, for its main upper tributary will be 

 taken from it, and the pass will then be situated at the 

 foot of the Baldhead. The process may even go farther, 

 and the ultimate position of the watershed may be at the 

 narrow place just above what was formerly the head of 

 Advent Bay. 



There was no distant view from the pass because of 

 clouds, which hung low in all directions, yet the scenery 

 was invested with no little dignity by its long sweeping 

 lines, its simple forms and sombre colouring, seen through 

 the thick wet air. The broad bases of the hills seemed to 

 imply vast mountains rising from them within the clouds ; 

 these the imagination easily supplied. How an ancient 

 Greek poet might have filled such a scene with gods and 

 mighty heroes aloof from little men ! Across such country 

 Hercules might stalk at large and seem in place, or hither 

 might come mysterious divinities not to be approached or 

 beheld of human eye save after awful initiations. Alas for 



