ELLSHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 



29 



In the diagram, which is taken from von Baer, we have 

 at X the Volga. Its left bank is flat, or only gently slop- 

 ing; the right rises irregularly to a considerable height 

 and falls down on the other side, not nearly so far to the 

 river Rwjaga at Y, and then rises slowly again. The Volga 

 is flowing from the observer, and the Rwjaga towards him, 

 and there is barely room for a habitation between them, 

 "where it depends upon the wdiims of the kitchen maids 

 w^hether the dish-water which is daily poured out flows 

 immediately into the \^olga, or whether it reaches the same 

 destination in a round-about course of four hundred versts. 

 This statement may seem exaggerated, but it is literally 

 true."* 



Fig. II. — Rivers of Gers, Scale, 1:150,000.1 



In the southern part of France, in the province of Gers, 

 we have a gently sloping plain, an old river delta that has 

 been lifted up, where streams can flow off in every direc- 

 tion down the slope, and take such courses as they may. 

 Here the right-hand tendency is shown to perfection. The 

 streams have their longer tributaries on the left, and their 

 right banks rise in bluffs. 



*Von Baer, St. Petersb. Bull. Sci. II., 1S60, col. 230. 



tFrom la Carte d' Etat- Major, reprinted in Reclus's Nouvelle Geographie Univer- 

 selle. 2. 



