An Indian Legend. 179 



there now any existing indications of any such 

 changes having occurred? 



The characteristic tendency of basalt to 

 vertical fracture, especially as in this case, 

 when overlying a softer rock, renders the por- 

 tions of these mountains that overhang the 

 river bank, liable to a good deal of crumbling. 

 That this friability is deep and not a mere sur- 

 face movement of debris is proved by a gen- 

 eral but slow movement of both banks toward 

 the river. The able engineer of the O. S. N. 

 Co. once assured the writer that this slow 

 glacial like movement of the mountains to- 

 ward the river was such as to necessitate fre- 

 quent readjustment of the railroad lines of the 

 company on both sides of the river. One 

 readily sees how this pressure of, foot hills to- 

 ward the bank may be unequally resisted or 

 accelerated by the rate of erosion over the 

 river bed, or the setting of the currents to- 

 wards one bank rather than the other. One 

 sees too, how any violent disturbance, such 

 as an earthquake, would greatly increase this 

 streamward movement, even to the extent of 



