CHAP. ix.J STREAMS OF STONES. 197 



angles being only a little blunted ; they vary in size from one or 

 two feet in diameter to ten, or even more than twenty times as 

 much. They are not thrown together into irregular piles, but 

 are spread out into level sheets or great streams. It is not pos- 

 sible to ascertain their thickness, but the water of small stream- 

 lets can be heard trickling through the stones many feet below 

 the surface. The actual depth is probably great, because the 

 crevices between the lower fragments must long ago have been 

 filled up with sand. The width of these sheets of stones varies 

 from a few hundred feet to a mile ; but the peaty soil daily en- 

 croaches on the borders, and even forms islets wherever a few 

 fragments happen to lie close together. In a valley south of 

 Berkeley Sound, which some of our party called the " great 

 valley of fragments," it was necessary to cross an uninterrupted 

 band half a mile wide, by jumping from one pointed stone to 

 another. So large were the fragments, that being overtaken 

 by a shower of rain, I readily found shelter beneath one of 

 them. 



Their little inclination is the most remarkable circumstance 

 in these " streams of stones." On the hill-sides I have seen 

 them sloping at an angle of ten degrees with the horizon ; but in 

 some of the level, broad-bottomed valleys, the inclination is only 

 just sufficient to be clearly perceived. On so rugged a surface 

 there was no means of measuring the angle ; but to give a common 

 illustration, I may say that the slope would not have checked 

 tlie speed of an English mail-coach. In some places, a con- 

 tinuous stream of these fragments followed up the course of a 

 valley, and even extended I0 the very crest of the hill. On these 

 crests huge masses, exceeding in dimensions any .small building, 

 seemed to stand arrested in their headlong course : there, also, 

 the curved strata of the archways lay piled on each other, like 

 the ruins of some vast and ancient cathedral. In endeavouring 

 to describe these scenes of violence one is tempted to pass from 

 one simile to another. We may imagine that streams of white 

 lava had flowed from many parts of the mountains into the lower 

 country, and that when solidified they had been rent by some 

 enormous convulsion into myriads of fragments. The expression 

 " streams of stones," which immediately occurred to every one, 

 conveys the same idea. These scenes are on the spot rendered 



