RUNNING WATERS 
155 
and held firmly by the roots of flags and grasses, 
their edges are ragged and under-cut by water, 
and upon them occasionally grow small elms or 
clumps of briars and alders. The bed of the 
river is muddy, the water cloudy, the color of 
it beautiful only in sky reflection. 
As we ascend the river, following what is 
called its Plain Track, the banks continue to rise, 
the bed becomes sandy or pebble-strewn, the 
stream clearer, the character of the ground more 
substantial. There are lifts or rises in the land, 
that seem to indicate little hills that have 
been worn down by many centuries of water- 
wear ; and these are, in fact, the forerunners of 
the hills which we soon find rising on either 
side of the river. A hundred miles or more up 
the stream, the hills begin to jut out stronger. 
They may be near at hand, but more often they 
are several miles back from the banks, and the 
river-bed is a flat plain lying in between them. 
The land may be cut up into farms, with fields 
of grain, orchards, and white houses; there 
may be forests here and there that grow down 
to the water’s edge, and meadows where cattle 
roam and daisies grow, with fords, bridges, and 
occasionally a lonely mill. The water does not 
run swiftly as yet, but it winds and cuts in the 
The Plain 
Track, 
The river 
basin. 
