GEOLOGY. 253 



It requires sometimes an experienced geologist to judge 

 satisfactorily in regard to such deposits, and determine 

 whether they be the products of glacial or of torrential 

 action. Several discussions relative to the origin of lar^e 

 deposits in France are cited by me in a volume entitled 

 Reboisement in France* (pp. 101-117, &c.) In regard to 

 the deposits in Finland there is little room for reasonable 

 doubt that they are moraines, and not what in France are 

 designated Us de dejection from torrents. 



But indications of torrential action also are not awanting 

 in Finland. There, in some cases, water may have only 

 completed what the flux of ice had begun. And it is not 

 improbable that the waterfalls and rapids connecting one 

 lake, or series of lakes, with another, have been brought 

 into their present condition by the action of water bearing 

 along stones stones both great and small. In reference 

 to what may thus be effected, the writer of the book of 

 Job tells of the waters wearing the stones, of the mountain 

 falling and coming to nought, and of the rock being 

 removed out of its place (chap. xiv. 18-19). In the 

 Vulgate this passage is rendered: 'The mountain crumbling 

 down comes to an end ; and the rock is removed from its 

 place; the waters undermine the stones; and by inunda- 

 tion, little by little, the land is laid waste.' 



It is matter of common observation that where water 

 dammed up in a hollow makes its escape, this is not done 

 by its pressing away the barrier in its entirety, but by 

 overflowing this it washes away a little of the earth at one 

 or more points on the summit of it ; a slightly increased 



* Reboisement in France ; or, Records of the Re-planting of the Alps, the Cevennes, 

 and the Pyrenees with trees, herbage, and bush, with a view to arresting and preventing 

 the destructive consequences of torrents. In which are" given a resumt of Surrel's study 

 of Alpine torrents, and of the literature of France relative to Alpine torrents, and 

 remedial measures which have been proposed for adoption to prevent the disastrous 

 consequences following from them, translations of documents and enactments, show- 

 ing what legislative and executive measures have been taken by the Government of 

 France in connection with reboisement as a remedial application against destructive 

 torrents, and details in regard to the past, present, and prospective aspects of the 

 work. London : Henry S. King & Co. 1876. 



