LANDSLIPS AND STONE-RIVERS. 45 



of this kind is alarming enough, it is a mere trifle compared 

 with what takes place in other parts of the world, as, for 

 instance, in Switzerland, where the Diablerets, a mountain 

 which is limestone above and soft shale below, has lost three 

 out of its five peaks, and almost filled a valley with its ruins. 



In many mountainous districts landslips are of constant 

 occurrence in the wet season, and the sides of the White 

 Mountain (New Hampshire, U.S.A.) are deeply furrowed 

 and scarred by the masses of earth, &c., which have been 

 hurled down them. In this case, while part of the moun- 

 tain itself is sometimes carried away, the landslip more 

 often consists of the loose upper surface, the cap , of soil, 

 in fact, with the forest-trees growing in it, which is stripped 

 off to a depth of fifteen, twenty, or thirty feet, leaving the 

 rock quite bare over an area sometimes 01 many acres. 



Another curious form of landslip is that of the famous 

 " stone-rivers " of East Island, one of the Falklands, which 

 are produced, not by any extraordinary convulsion, but by 

 the wear and tear of every day. 



These stone-rivers at a distance much resemble glaciers, 

 and vary in width from a few hundred yards to a mile or 

 two, while the irregular blocks of stone of which they are 

 composed are from two to twenty feet long. They are 

 derived from the bands of quartzite of the ridges above, 

 some of which are very hard, and others so soft that they 

 pass into crumbling sandstone. As the latter are worn and 

 washed away by rain, frost, &c., the compact bands are 

 left as long projecting ridges along the crests and flanks of 

 the hill-ranges, until at last, deprived of support, they give 

 way at the joints, and fall from their places; then, when 



