ACTION OF TORRENTS. 265 
the fields and the deluging overflow of the raging waters, the 
streams are confined by walls and embankments, which are 
gradually built higher and higher as the bed of the torrent is 
raised, so that, to reach a river, you ascend from the fields be- 
side it; and sometimes the ordinary level of the stream is 
above the streets and even the roofs of the towns through 
which it passes.* 
The traveller who visits the depths of an Alpine ravine, 
observes the length and width of the gorge and the great 
height and apparent solidity of the precipitous walls which 
bound it, and calculates the mass of rock required to fill the 
vacancy, can hardly believe that the humble brooklet which 
purls at his feet has been the principal agent in accomplishing 
this tremendous erosion. Closer observation will often teach 
him, that the seemingly unbroken rock which overhangs the 
valley is full of cracks and fissures, and really in such a state 
dinary, even in a country subject to similar visitations, that the sympathy 
excited for the sufferers produced, in five months, voluntary contributions for 
their relief to the amount of nearly $200,000.—Delle Inondazionié del Mella, 
etc., nella notte del 14 al 15 Agosto, 1850. 
The author of this pamphlet has chosen as a motto a passage from the Vul- 
gate translation of Job, which is interesting as showing accurate observation 
of the action of the torrent: ‘Mons cadens definit, et saxum transfertur de 
loco suo; lapides excavant aque et alluvione pauliatim terra consumitur.”— 
Job xiv. 18, 19. 
The English version is much less striking, and gives a different sense. 
The recent date of the change in the character of the Mella is contested, 
and it is possible that, though the extent of the revolution is not exaggerated, 
the rapidity with which it has taken place may have been. 
* Strefleur quotes from Duile the following observations: ‘‘ The channel 
of the Tyrolese brooks is often raised much above the valleys through which 
they flow. The bed of the Fersina is elevated high above the city of Trent, 
which lies near it. The Villerbach flows at a much more elevated level than 
that of the market-place of Neumarkt and Vill, and threatens to overwhelm 
both of them with its waters. The Talfer at Botzen is at least even with the 
roofs of the adjacent town, if not above them. The tower-steeples of the 
villages of Schlanders, Kortsch, and Laas, are lower than the surface of the 
Gaazibach. The Saldurbach at Schluderns menaces the far lower village with 
destruction, and the chief town, Schwaz, is in similar danger from the Lahn- 
bach.” —STREFFLEUR, Ueber die Wildbdche, etc., p. 7. 
