208 
FALKLAND LSLANDS 
CHAP. 
them sloping at an angle of ten degrees with the horizon ; but 
in some of the level, broad-bottomed valleys, the inclination is 
only just sufficient to be clearly perceived. On so rugged a 
surface there was no means of measuring the angle ; but to 
give a common illustration, I may say that the slope would 
not have checked the speed of an English mail-coach. In 
some places a continuous stream of these fragments followed 
up the course of a valley, and even extended to the very crest 
of the hill. On these crests huge masses, exceeding in dimen¬ 
sions any small building, seemed to stand arrested in their 
headlong course : there, also, the curved strata of the archways 
lay piled on each other, like the ruins of some vast and ancient 
cathedral. In endeavouring to describe these scenes of violence 
one is tempted to pass from one simile to another. We may 
imagine that streams of white lava had flowed from many 
parts of the mountains into the lower country, and that when 
solidified they had been rent by some enormous convulsion 
into myriads of fragments. The expression “ streams of 
stones,” which immediately occurred to every one, conveys 
the same idea. These scenes are on the spot rendered 
more striking by the contrast of the low, rounded forms of the 
neighbouring hills. 
I was interested by finding on the highest peak of one 
range (about 700 feet above the sea) a great arched fragment, 
lying on its convex side, or back downwards. Must we believe 
that it was fairly pitched up in the air, and thus turned ? Or, 
with more probability, that there existed formerly a part of 
the same range more elevated than the point on which this 
monument of a great convulsion of nature now lies. As the 
fragments in the valleys are neither rounded nor the crevices 
filled up with sand, we must infer that the period of violence 
was subsequent to the land having been raised above the 
waters of the sea. In a transverse section within these valleys 
the bottom is nearly level, or rises but very little towards either 
side. Hence the fragments appear to have travelled from the 
head of the valley ; but in reality it seems more probable that 
they have been hurled down from the nearest slopes ; and that 
since, by a vibratory movement of overwhelming force, 1 the 
1 “Nous n’avons pas ete moins saisis d’etonnement a la vue de l’innombrable 
quantite de pierres de toutes grandeurs, bouleversees les unes sur les autres, et 
