14 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



countless little holes and channels through the vast body; 

 each year snow and ice press further and further ; the 

 very air, full of destructive power, gnaws at every corner 

 and every edge, until the high-swollen torrent at last 

 worries the weary rock out of his ancient resting-place, 

 and bears him for a moment in wild triumph high on 

 its roaring, rollicking waves. Or perhaps cold, dazzling 

 glaciers, bright, majestic icebergs, lifted him on their broad 

 shoulders, and carried him high over wide plains or the 

 ocean's unmeasured width, until at last he fell, with a 

 fearful crash, that the splinters flew and the waters 

 foamed. Even now the heavy rocks of the polar circle 

 are carried, by the hand of colossal icebergs, from the 

 eternal snows of their home to the sweet climes of the 

 equator. Even now the glaciers of Alps and Andes bear 

 down huge blocks of ancient granite to low meadows and 

 distant waters. The green waters of the Rhine carry 

 many a child of the ice-covered Alps to the fertile plains 

 of the Netherlands, whilst the brother that was born on 

 the same high throne, is torn from his side to wander 

 on the dark waves of the Danube to the inhospitable 

 shores of the Black Sea. 



For, a fierce, untiring leveller, the water wages incessant 

 war against the aristocrats of the earth. It gnaws and 

 tears and wearies the loftiest mountain top season after 

 season, age after age, and is never content until it has 

 brought him low, and dragged him in spiteful contumely 

 to its own great home, the ocean. Each river has to 

 be a faithful, restless servant in the work of destruction. 

 The Nile has created its Delta, the Rhine has formed 



