292 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



the upheaval was still in progress and that the mighty 

 mountains were not yet at rest. 



Such are the changes that this valley has known 

 through the long period of its history. It has been 

 involved in some of the greatest movements that have 

 raised or lowered the surface of the glohe. These 

 movements still continue and the valley still passes 

 through the same ceaseless change. Erosion and 

 sedimentation work unceasingly on every side. Rivers 

 wind through the broader valleys, depositing sand 

 from the higher ranges and spreading abroad a fertile 

 soil. Weatherworn terraces of alluvium indicate 

 the level of old river beds and provide the cultivator 

 with fields of luxuriant harvest. Other rivers erode 

 narrow gorges through which they rush in echoing 

 roar. Rivulets, sparkling beneath the clumps of pines, 

 wear their own little channels into the granite hills ; 

 streams wash the pebbles down the gentler slopes, and 

 waterfalls eat into the rocky ledges to fall splashing 

 into the torrent below. Glaciers erode the higher 

 mountains, and the massive boulders in the lower 

 valleys indicate the vast extent of country once 

 clothed in a sheet of ice. 



Heat and cold, rain and river, frost and ice are 

 at work on every side eroding, levelling and sweeping 

 down the mountains. The valleys that are filling and 

 the gorges that are deepening both foretell the same 

 destiny ; they predict the building of a plateau of 

 erosion, the lowering of the mountains to the level 

 land. 



I will conclude with a little geological observation 

 that somewhat interested me, namely, the movement 

 that took place in the sand on the bed of a rapid stream. 



