104 ODD HOURS WI1H NATURE 



midable only in heavy rain, and they diminish 

 with almost incredible rapidity when the rain stops. 

 The main valley river itself, to which all those 

 hill streams are tributary, becomes in rain a great 

 and impressive body of water, and within a few 

 hours of the appearance of blue sky dwindles to 

 fordable proportions. On the last day of the rain 

 referred to, it became so fine a spectacle that I 

 resolved to take photographs of it " as soon as 

 the light became good." Next morning the light 

 was excellent, but the impressiveness had gone 

 completely out of the picture. The spate outlived 

 the rain by only a few hours. 



The geologist pictures Scotland of a very remote 

 past as a tableland which has been cut and 

 furrowed by the forces of erosion, chiefly running 

 water. In regions of easy slopes and mild rain- 

 fall the idea is not easily absorbed, and hence 

 the persistence of the popular notion that our 

 mountains are the results of great upheavals. 

 Among the western hills in rainy weather the con- 

 ception of the country as a low dome sculptured 

 by running water " soaks in." 



