STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF THE FOSSIL FUELS. 89 



cussed the matter somewhat in detail elsewhere.^^^ But it may not 

 be amiss to cite some additional evidence showing that floods and 

 torrents are almost powerless against living vegetation. In the 

 summer of 1895, the writer was marooned during three days by a 

 flood on the Little Wichita River of northern Texas. The flood was 

 widespread, affecting also the area of the Brazos River. It came 

 abruptly, so that in a single night, the petty streams, flowing at 30 to 

 40 feet below the general level, filled their little valleys and over- 

 flowed ; the parched area of the preceding day w^as covered with water 

 more than hub-deep in many places. The current was extremely 

 rapid; by mistake of the guide, the party were caught in it on one 

 stream and narrowly escaped being swept away with the horses and 

 the heavy conveyance. Within 2 miles of the city of Archer, the 

 flood had invaded an extensive area, covered with trees and shrubs. 

 Rapid outside, the movement was insignificant within this wooded 

 area, the trees and shrubs, though not dense, being as efficient in 

 checking the motion and in breaking up the current as is debris in a 

 mountain forest. After cessation of rain, the flood subsided almost 

 as quickly as it had risen. A ride of 60 miles over the area affected 

 by it gave ample opportunity for studying the effect. The roads and 

 sandy places were gashed and gullied ; cultivated fields in the line of 

 the torrents, one eighth to half a mile wide, were swept clean of the 

 thin cover of soil, but where the surface was protected by grass the 

 destruction was unimportant. Trees and shrubs, except those stand- 

 ing on loose material, w^ere uninjured, while in extensive clumps of 

 bushes there was no evidence of disturbance, aside from an accumu- 

 lation of debris, deposited where the current first reached the plant- 

 obstruction. The fierce current was powerless against trees, even 

 against the clumps of bushes. 



Reade,^-'' writing of floods on the Senegal and Gambia Rivers, 

 says: 



" If a boat was to be moored in the rivers to the top of an acacia tree 

 just projecting above the water, you would find it afterward in the dry sea- 

 son hanging forty feet above your head." 



125 See " Formation of Coal Beds, II.," Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, Vol. L., 

 pp. 520-546. 



126 \Y_ w_ Reade, " Savage Africa," New York, 1864, p. 363. 



