RUNNING WATERS 



159 



tains, were hollowed out and rounded by the 

 constant touch of running streams. In all 

 countries and along all rivers the waters have 

 smoothed and rubbed and polished the sharp 

 points and jutting promontories ; through many 

 centuries they have cut and worn away and 

 modelled anew the mountains and the valleys, 

 until to-day we have as a result those sweeping 

 lines of beauty which mark not the Hudson 

 alone, but the Seine, the Khine, and the Dan- 

 ube. 



These great carvings of the earth's surface 

 were probably never witnessed by any one gen- 

 eration, or even race, of men. The work was 

 wrought gradually, and yet, within the river's 

 bed, one can see evidences of erosion going on 

 to-day. "Water has not lost its cutting power. If 

 it always ran straight it would work less destruc- 

 tion ; but the river is very susceptible to in- 

 fluences, and swings first to one side and then 

 to another side, much like the pendulum of 

 a clock. A current shunted over against one 

 bank rebounds upon the opposite bank lower 

 down ; and a violent push given to the water 

 by a rocky cliff may often be felt in oscillations 

 for miles down the stream. It is this bound 

 ap* rebound, from shore to shore, with its con- 



