170 THE EARTH MADE READY FOR MAN 



river many years ago from the place where the rushing 

 mountain brook tore them away from their parent 

 ledge. 



In that long-ago time, just as now, not all of the 

 pebbles in the rushing brooks reached the sea. 

 Some were worn down almost to powder, like the 

 sand and clay you play with on the beach or wade 

 into at low tide. Some were left all along the way 

 wherever the brooks or rivers flowed through a place 

 low enough to be flooded over when the water was 

 high; for after a hard rain the brooks did then ex- 

 actly as they do now. They overflowed on the lower 

 parts of their course and spread out in broad sheets 

 of water where no water had been before. Then 

 presently, when the rain was over, the waters sub- 

 sided and flowed away in the regular brook channel. 

 But although the water flowed away it did not leave 

 the low land just as it was before, for there remained 

 on its surface some of the gravel and sand that the 

 stream was trying to carry away with it. This 

 helped to fill up the valley. After years and years 

 of being flooded the valley would be changed from 

 a deep hollow into a more even plain. 



The hollows were filled with the finely worn 

 pieces of rock where roots could feel their way and 

 plants could grow when the time was right. That is 

 the way many of our meadows came to be as they 

 are. 



Now all along throughout the ages the streams 

 have worked in the same way. If you could watch 

 a rushing mountain brook you would see it doing 

 the same thing now. Rapidh^ it pushes along the bits 



