152 ABSENCE OF WATERFALLS 



hardness, the action of the stream will be uniform, or at 

 least only varied by increased velocity, and acquired volume 

 from contributory streams, in the course of descent. The 

 result would be a rapid stream at a gradually increasing 

 angle, but without any sudden jump of the water. If, 

 on the other hand, the stream has a varying substance to 

 traverse, or, in other words, to work upon, the character 

 of the stream must inevitably change with it. If, after 

 traversing a hard rock, it passes over a soft one, it will 

 in a given time have made a deeper score in the soft than 

 in the hard rock, and in the course of time, at the points 

 of junction, or passage from the hard rock to the soft, a 

 sudden depression will be produced ; in other words a 

 waterfall of greater or less height. In North Staffordshire 

 what substance have the hill streams to traverse ? The 

 answer, applicable to the principal portion of the area, is, 

 a coarse sandstone, known geologically as the Millstone 

 Grit. It is not of uniform consistency and hardness, for 

 nearly every quarry varies, as every quarryman will tell 

 us. The variations are frequent, from a sandstone to a 

 grit, and from a grit to a conglomerate. Still, the one 

 general character of a grit applies to it, and the changes 

 in texture are not of that decided, determined character 

 which abound in other elevated districts of England. The 

 millstone grit in North Staffordshire is free from hard 

 intrusive rocks of igneous origin. There are none of the 

 hard trap dykes that abound in Wales and in the North 

 of England, but the variations are of that limited kind 

 just sufficient to produce slight variations and changes of 

 aspect. Such is the character of the watershed of the 

 infant Churnet and Weaver, and, extending our area of 

 observation beyond the confines of the county, such is the 

 character of the streams descending from the millstone 

 grit in other parts of England. In Derbyshire, where this 



