56 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



I heard that in other mountain regions in the 

 United States pirates might still be seen. 



I liked the names that this geologist used that 

 evening in describing streams. They were sci- 

 entifically correct names, too. He spoke of a 

 "young" river and of another as being in slow 

 "old age"; of an uplift that had steepened the 

 grade and "revived" an old river; and mentioned 

 the Potomac, the James, and other rivers as 

 having been recently "drowned" an extraor- 

 dinary experience for a river I thought by 

 the seashore sinking and permanently lowering 

 the mouths of these rivers below sea level. 

 There was no end of discussion about streams 

 eroding headward, cutting their way through a 

 hill or even a mountain, and capturing the head 

 of the stream on the other side. A river that 

 loses its head is "beheaded" by a "pirate." 

 Rivers also dig in and entrench themselves. 



Out we went next day, and the geologist 

 showed me where a pirate river had sawed 

 through a mountain and come out almost under- 

 neath the stream on the other side. This be- 

 headed stream on the other side poured down 

 into the new channel. Then we went to see 

 where a pirate had recently captured an old 

 pirate who had a record of three beheadings. 



A stream flowing down a hillside cuts a chan- 

 nel headward just as a saw cuts into a log. A 



