THE GREAT SCULPTOR 103 



to within a couple of hundred feet of sea -level. 

 The work of the streams which occupy them is 

 well on the way to completion. But at one time, 

 very long ago, they were just long gullies in the 

 long range they have now cleft into three distinct 

 hills. 



To return to my starting-point. On the third 

 day the depression has passed over us far enough 

 to give us the easterly slant of wind which means 

 dry weather on the West Coast, and the type of 

 weather changes from steady downpour to 

 " showers." On the fourth day we have blue 

 sky. While it was still " showers " more than 

 half the white lacing of the hill-face disappeared. 

 With dry weather all the threads of white water 

 vanish but two, and a single day of dry weather 

 reduces their number to one that in the large 

 gully. And the stream in the large gully : twenty - 

 four hours ago a torrent seething and boiling 

 among boulders in its channel at the bottom of 

 the hill hardly covers the small pebbles in its 

 course. Its fine waterfalls where it leaps down 

 the hillside have become mere threads. It never 

 runs dry, for by lowering its col it has appro- 

 priated a large gathering -ground ; but a month 

 of drought brings it very near to the vanishing- 

 point. 



If the old lady of the story had spent her days 

 in this glen, and derived all her notions of streams 

 from those that occur in it, experience would have 

 justified her expectation. Most of the hill streams 

 begin to run after a day or two of heavy rain. 

 Those of them that never run dry become for- 



