THE TWO GREAT SCULPTORS. 103 
and the stones became the tops of tall pillars of clay, 
washed into shape by the rain beating on its sides, but 
escaping the general destruction of the rest of the 
mud. In this way the whole valley has been carved 
out into fine pillars, some still having capping-stones, 
while others have lost them, and these last will soon 
be washed away. We have no such valleys of earth- 
pillars here in England, but you may sometimes see 
tiny pillars under bridges where the drippings have 
washed away the earth between the pebbles, and such 
small examples which you can observe for yourselves 
are quite as instructive as more important ones. 
Another way in which rain changes the surface of the 
earth is by sinking down through loose soil from the top 
of a cliff to a depth of many feet till it comes to solid 
rock, and then lying spread over a wide space. Here 
it makes a kind of watery mud, which is a very unsafe 
foundation for the hill of earth above it, and so after 
a time the whole mass slips down and makes a fresh 
piece of land at the foot of the cliff. If you have ever 
been at the Isle of Wight you will have seen an 
undulating strip of ground, called the Undercliff, at 
Ventnor and other places, stretching all along the sea 
below the high cliffs. This land was once at the top 
of the cliff, and came down by a succession of landslips 
such as we have been describing. A very great land- 
slip of this kind happened in the memory of living 
people, at Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, in the year 
1839. 
You will easily see how in forming earth-pillars and 
causing landslips rain changes the face of the country, 
