THE UNIVERSAL STRIFE 11 



resembling the cries of savage men. Here the little 

 pebbles are most severely battered, for here the 

 water strikes them hardest against the rocky walls 

 as it slowly chips out a wider way. The burden of 

 the flood, however, is not restricted to the debris of 

 rocks. It bears onward other relics skeletons of 

 leaves, rotted twigs, insects of many kinds, the 

 writhing leech, the drowning moth : all are hurried 

 along, or are crowded and pressed into the frequent 

 bars that silt up across the course of the stream. 

 The noise is ceaseless, and seems to vaunt the 

 eternal activity and power of the water. Did we 

 not long ago put this to the test ? Did we never 

 try to stop a rill ? We tilted a great stone into its 

 narrow gorge. It was only delayed for a moment. 

 Little currents seemed to turn back from the ob- 

 stacle to tell the news up stream. The water began 

 to mount. We pushed stones, sticks, turves any- 

 thing at hand down on the rock, and made a 

 solid barrier. But the stream rose as quickly. 

 Little jets began to peep down, and when we 

 turned aside, discomfited, a hundred brook-voices 

 laughed from the rough projections, while all the 

 softer materials were dissolved and whirled away. 



