370 MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



size only that gives impressiveness and beauty to a 

 waterfall; it is the setting of the leap, the changeful- 

 ness, and sometimes the pleasant breaking up into a 

 succession of cascades. What makes a waterfall? 



Mr. Lake's answer is so clearly worded that we 

 venture to quote it : " If a hard bed dips gently 

 down the stream, the river, in passing over it, will 

 generally form rapids rather than waterfalls. But if 

 the hard bed is horizontal, or dips gently up the 

 stream, the river will wear away the softer rocks 

 beneath it, the hard bed will overhang, and a waterfall 

 will be produced. The falling water will continue to 

 undermine the hard bed, and from time to time blocks 

 of the latter will be broken off and the waterfall will 

 gradually recede upstream." This is what has hap- 

 pened here; our twenty-feet waterfall is a miniature 

 Niagara, and the gorge we came through is like the 

 Niagara gorge, due to the backward cutting being 

 more rapid than the erosion of the sides of the valley 

 by rain and the other atmospheric agencies. Mr. Lake 

 goes on to point out, however, that "if a hard bed, 

 or an igneous dyke, runs vertically across the river, 

 the soft rock on the downstream side will be rapidly 

 worn away and a waterfall will be formed. But no 

 undermining of the hard bed is possible. The river 

 will gradually cut its channel deeper, both in the hard 

 and soft rock, and the waterfall will not alter its 

 position " (" Physical Geography," p. 249). 



There are some beautiful shade-plants growing in 

 the recesses near the waterfall; these are well-repre- 

 sented by the Golden Saxifrage (Chrysoplenium), the 

 Woodruff (Asperula odorata), the Moschatel (Adoxa 

 moschatellina), and the Hart's-tongue Fern (Scolo- 



