CHASMS OF EROSION AND FOREST DEFENSE 



BY CHARLES A. WHITTLE 



NO more striking exhibition of the results of erosion 

 within the historic age is to be found than in parts 

 of Georgia near the river basins along the dividing 

 line of the Piedmont and coastal plain regions. Chasms 

 two hundred feet deep, with tall trees growing from 

 their bottoms, but with sides bare and gullied, have been 

 resolutely gnawed deep into the plateaus by the forces 

 of erosion. Farms have been riven, barns and houses 

 have been engulfed and generations of men have looked 

 with awe and helplessness upon the phenomena. 



During geological ages of the long past, the now 

 gashed and barren earth came down with the floods and 

 found its present resting place. But now the police 

 forces of nature are commanding it to "move on" and 

 sturdy liquid minions are set to hustling it. 



Only one staying hand has been lifted the dark pine 

 forests that grip the earth with strong fingers and 

 resolutely confront the dragons of the caverns. Where 

 the forest is weak the chasms have pulled it down. Where 

 the forest is strong the caverns give up the struggle. 



Man has taken cognizance of the combat and given 

 his only aid to the struggle against erosion ; he has learned 

 to let the forest alone where the gorges encroach. To 

 ])lant a forest athwart the line of approach has seemed 

 futile to the fanner land owner. He realizes How lon;j 

 it takes to grow a forest and how formidable it has to 

 be to withstand the under-cutting of the persistent force. 

 So that once the gorge, has invaded, the farmer abandons 

 hope of ever again bringing the land under agricultural 

 subjection, so forbidding are the rough stee]) slopes and 



NOT THE GRAND CANYON 



This shows erosion of land in Stewart County, Georgia. Note the depth of the gully in which 

 large trees are growing and how wooded land (left upper corner of picture) is, threatened by 

 the progress of the erosion. 



492 



INVADING GOOD FARM LAND 



Each day erosion nibbles more and more of the farm land and wuod lot 

 seen in the upper section of the picture and a great wedge is being driven 

 into a valuable property. 



SO narrow and tortuous the bottoms of 

 the gorges. 



The sculpturing elements have left 

 grotesque and often picturesque monu- 

 ments along the courses of these chasms, 

 as if to redeem their merciless work 

 from utter sordidness. Behold the 

 towers, the minarets, the miniature repre- 

 sentations of the Alps, the Grand Can- 

 yon, the "Bad Lands" ; see the carved 

 animals and strange forms of no name 

 the grand and grotesque in these valleys 

 of destruction ! 



If we pry into the secrets of this 

 strange gallery there is an apparent 

 reason for all of the sculpturing. Cap- 

 ping each upstanding figure is a protect- 

 ing stone, often scarcely larger than a 

 hand. From this stone slopes the earth 

 forming a very pretentious peak. One 



