The Mighty Deep 



or newly received from ever fresh because ever 

 renewed springs. Never stagnant water. 



So Earth's rivers — we are talking of land- 

 rivers now — oratherinof to themselves the multi- 

 tude of lesser streams and tributaries, which in 

 their turn have been earlier fed by an infinite 

 number of burns and runnels in country and 

 town, hurry downward to the Ocean, with rich 

 presents from the Land. But all the while. 

 Land expects " to receive as much again." 



When we stand beside a broad river, watching 

 the steady flow, hearing the little murmurs of 

 sound and the soft suck and ''swish" against the 

 banks, we do not often realise the greatness of 

 the task which that river may have in hand. 



Suppose we are on the banks of the Seine, the 

 mother-stream of gay Paris. Many a century 

 has Paris lived ; but the Seine existed countless 

 centuries before Paris was ever heard of. Year 

 by year the Seine drains away surplus water 

 from some twenty-three thousand square miles 

 of French territory. Year by year the Seine 

 carries down to the Ocean a ofift of more than 

 five cubic miles of water. Five hundred cubic 

 miles in the course of a century ! 



Or suppose we turn to the Rhine, that river of 

 castles and legends, which starts with the melt- 



90 



