258 ACTION OF TOEKENTS. 



There is one effect of the action of torrents which few travel- 

 lers on the Continent are heedless enough to pass without notice. 

 I refer to the elevation of the beds of mountain streams in conse- 

 quence of the deposit of the debris with which they are charged. 

 To prevent the spread of sand and gravel over 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 beside 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, ob- 

 serves 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 accomphshing this ti'emendous erosion. 

 Closer observation will often teach him, that the seemingly un- 



francs, and the violence of the catastrophe was deemed so extraordinary, 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. — Belle Irwndazioni 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 aquae et alluvione paullatim 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. 



* Streffleur 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 VOlerbach flows at a much ruore 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 Gadribach. 

 The Saldurbach at Schluderns menaces the far lower village with destruc- 

 tion, and the chief town, Schwaz, is in similar danger from the Lahnbach."— 

 Btreffleur, Ueber die Wildbdche, etc., p. 7. 



