246 C. Lloyd Morgan — Physiographij. 



it. If the rainfall continue, the soil is soon carried a few inches 

 further ; and it always travels in one direction from higher to lower 

 levels. Our field may be separated at its lower end from another by 

 a wall, which will check the downward progress of the soil. If 

 this be so, we shall often find that, from the accumulation of this 

 soil, a chUd may look over the wall on that side of it which faces up 

 hill, while a full-grown man may have to stand on tiptoe to gain the 

 same advantage on the lower side. Or perhaps at the bottom of the 

 field there may be a ditch; that ditch may communicate with a 

 streamlet, and the streamlet fall into a river. Some of the soil of 

 the field is thus carried by every heavy shower of rain into the ditch, 

 and thence into the river. After a wet day we shall find that all 

 the tiny rills, the little rivulets, the streams, and the great rivers 

 themselves, are muddy and thick. This mud is nearly all derived 

 from the soil of the land which lies in the river- valley. Thus the 

 land is always flowing downwards to the sea ; not a particle can get 

 up again when once it has flowed even a few feet in its downward 

 course : and this action is going on wherever rain falls upon the 

 surface of the land. 



But though the surface layer is, in this way, being constantly 

 washed off the fields, the soil does not lessen in quantity. For as fast 

 as material is carried away by the rain, so fast does the same agent, 

 aided by weathering action, prepare fresh soil, to be treated in a 

 similar manner. At the same time, we must remember that, though 

 the amount of soil does not grow less, the amount of land above the 

 waters of the ocean does diminish. Does this seem strange? A 

 rough analogy may serve to make it clear. A man possesses a 

 certain amount of money, most of which is in the bank, and a small 

 amount, for immediate use, in his waistcoat pocket. As fast as his 

 ready cash disappears, he draws a cheque on his banker, and in this 

 way his waistcoat pocket has a more or less constant supply. 

 Practically speaking, therefore, his ready cash does not diminish, 

 though his balance at the bankers does not remain equally constant, 

 but decreases day by day, at a rate which would shortly lead to 

 bankruptcy, if he were not careful that there should be a supply 

 equal to the demand. Now the soil is the ready cash, and the strata 

 of England the balance at the bank. Eainfall is continually tending 

 to diminish the amount of soil or ready cash, which is made good by 

 a fresh supply from the bank. It is perfectly obvious, however, 

 that the balance at the bankers must decrease, and that in the course 

 of ages England must be entirely washed away into the sea of 

 geological bankruptcy, unless the bank receive a fresh supply ; 

 unless, in other words, by the force of elevation, fresh land be 

 raised, from time to time, above the waters of the ocean. 



With regard to the influence of rain on the physical aspect of a 

 country, it may be said that, viewed on a large scale and in a general 

 way, this agent exercises a softening effect on scenery ; in those 

 areas where the strata are of a soft and easily yielding nature, the 

 work of rain as an Earth-sculptor is to cause the land to .assume a 



