A Story of Conflict 



The pebbles in rough weather are caught up and 

 whirled about like grains of sand ; and after a 

 severe gale the whole look of a beach is often 

 completely changed. The shingle may have 

 been piled to an unusual height, or it may have 

 been borne away. So it is easy to recognise 

 that water has no mean carrying strength. 



In the last chapter we saw what huge gifts of 

 water are handed over, year by year, from the 

 Land to the Ocean. But the Rivers, acting 

 as handmaidens to carry these offerings, do not 

 bestow water only. The water-gifts are laden 

 with solid materials, to be used for building 

 purposes. 



A river tears earth and sand from its own 

 banks, and wears down the stones and rocks 

 in its bed ; and to this growing collection, as 

 it flows, it adds contributions of earth and sand, 

 brought from higher reaches by its tributary 

 streams. Most of those materials are kept 

 afloat. 



To make sure that they are so, we only have 

 to examine the mouth of a river. Floating mud 

 and sand may not be apparent in the river itself; 

 but just where the river joins the sea, just where 

 the outflowing stream encounters the inflowing 

 ocean-tides, a bank or banks of mud and sand 



105 



