rr. nr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 159 



Common the water was ponded back into lakes till 

 it flowed over the banks on which these fences stand. 

 On descending the south-west side of Filmere Hill, I 

 came to a stream below the ' Horse-shoes,' which con- 

 tinued along the Dean to Bramdean, and through the 

 lavant between there and Cheriton to Tichborne and 

 Southampton. The streams of these two usually dry 

 trunk valleys were joined by very strong streams from 

 their usually dry branch valleys. 



In opposition to Professor Sedgwick's opinions, 

 that ' Torrents and rivers act upon lines only^' while 

 vegetable growth and deposit are universal, tlie area 

 of aqueous denudation, or the wash of rain water, 

 which is carried off by rivers, is still more universal 

 than the area of vegetation. The disintegration of 

 the barest rocks, of the barest mountain-ridges, 

 beyond the pale of vegetation, is washed by rain to 

 the plant-clothed hill-side below. Nay, even from the 

 mountain-top clad with eternal snow, the descent of 

 this en masse, the avalanche, and the glacier, bring 

 down debris with them to be disintegrated below. 

 Indeed, glaciers bring their huge quota ready-ground 

 for exportation ; and if my admiration and reverence 

 for the great master would allow me, I should say that 

 Lyell made an error m admitting this vast error of the 

 Professor's; that is (though Lyell controverts Sedg- 

 wick's opinions), in allowing the expression which I 

 have marked to pass current. Nay, as regards the 

 formation of valleys, I would actually impugn some 



