28 
NATURE NOTES 
away, as at the Peak cave of Derbyshire. They are called 
“ swallow-holes.” In the island of Malta there is one of these 
holes, with all the signs of a big river having once run along at 
the bottom ; but there are no large rivers there now, and it must 
have been made when Malta was joined to Sicily and formed part 
of the continent. 
Another use of a river must be mentioned, and that is in en- 
croaching upon the sea or lake where it enters it ; for, meeting 
with the resistance at its mouth, it deposits the mud brought 
down, and this accumulating ultimately forms land, so that 
many a town originally built at the mouth of a large river is now 
several miles inland. Thus the land has greatly extended where 
the Rhone runs into the Lake of Geneva. In Egypt, too, we 
see the same thing on a large scale. Egypt has been truly called 
“ the gift of the Nile.” The desert originally extended unbroken 
from Libya to Palestine, the Nile emptying itself into the Red 
Sea. From some cause it changed its course — perhaps by 
“silting” up, — and it then ran, as it does now, northwards. 
Now, as it began to throw down its mud at the mouth, the river 
became divided into two channels, and thus formed a triangular 
piece of land like a Greek called a “delta.” The rivers 
now repeated the process till the Nile has now seven mouths, 
being split up, as it were, into seven streams. 
One more feature, especially of mountain scenery, is the 
presence of lakes. These are simply the accumulation of the 
waters of rivers in large valleys occurring in mountainous 
regions. As a rule the river enters at one end, fills the valley, 
and flows out at the other. Such is the origin of Bala lake by 
the action of the river Dee, and of other lakes in Wales and Cum- 
berland. It is the same in the outer regions of Switzerland, as 
at Lucerne, Geneva, Constance, &c. The rivers supplying these 
lakes are mainly derived from the melted ice of the glaciers or 
consolidated snow of the higher altitudes of the mountains. 
OUR WOODS AND FORESTS. 
E take the following extracts from a review of the 
Report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests 
for 1898-99 in the Daily Chronicle of December 26: — 
“The Crown woodlands, although at present finan- 
cially of small moment, when compared with the bulk of the 
property, are yet of great importance for the health and recrea- 
tion of the people, and as supplying a certain amount of useful 
timber, as w'ell as customary rights of fuel, grazing, &c. They 
may also be used with great advantage for other purposes, as 
will be explained further on. It is, therefore, evident that much 
time and care must be given to the maintenance of these relics 
