THE RIVER 



wind drives the wavelets direct upon the strand, 

 there are little beaches formed by the undermining 

 and fall of the bank. 



The tiny surge rolls up the incline ; each wave 

 differing in the height to which it reaches, and 

 none of them alike, washing with it minute frag- 

 ments of stone and gravel, mere specks which 

 vibrate to and fro with the ripple and even drift 

 with the current. Will these fragments, after a 

 process of trituration, ultimately become sand ? A 

 groove runs athwart the bottom, left recently by 

 the keel of a skiff, recently only, for in a few hours 

 these specks of gravel, sand, and particles that sweep 

 along the bottom, fill up such depressions. The 

 motion of these atoms is not continuous, but in- 

 termittent ; now they rise and are carried a few 

 inches and there sink, in a minute or two to rise 

 again and proceed. 



Looking to windward there is a dark tint upon 

 the water ; but down the stream, turning the other 

 way, intensely brilliant points of light appear and 

 disappear. Behind a boat rowed against the cur- 

 rent two widening lines of wavelets, in the shape 

 of an elongated V, stretch apart and glitter, and 

 every dip of the oars and the slippery oar blades 

 themselves, as they rise out of the water, reflect 

 the sunshine. The boat appears but to touch the 

 surface, instead of sinking into it, for the water is 

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