The Woods, the River, and the Rain 43 



best soil. In it are the remnants of the vegetation 

 of the other summers, containing materials which 

 Nature can use again to build up other forms of 

 plant life. 



It has been calculated that the rivers of the 

 United States carry away two hundred square 

 miles of fertile land each year, and deposit it in 

 the ocean harbors. 



When the first settlers came into the country, 

 they built towns in the river valleys. In such val- 

 leys the land is apt to be level or gently sloping, 

 so that even after It is cleared, streamlets do not 

 cause much destruction as they run to join the 

 rivers. But now the lumbermen are beginning to 

 remove the forest from the Appalachian Moun- 

 tains. The peaks of these mountains receive the 

 great rainfall of summer and the heavy snow of 

 winter. There all the great rivers of the Atlantic 

 States take their rise. All over the tops of these 

 mountains, for hundreds of years, a cool, dark 

 forest has shadowed the ground, and has piled on 

 the earth's surface a deep spongy covering of 

 vegetable mold. This absorbs the water from 

 mountain showers or from melting snows, and 

 thus prevents It from rushing violently down the 

 slopes Into the valley streams. Instead, it soaks 

 slowly and gently through moss, vegetable mold, 

 and earth to feed the springs and rivulets which, 

 in their turn, feed the rivers. Among such moun- 

 tain woods the Hudson and the Delaware, the 



