112 THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
wider chasms, or rushes rapidly through the narrow 
gorges at their feet 
" No description," says Lieutenant Ives, one of the 
first explorers of this river, " can convey the idea of 
the varied and majestic grandeur of this peerless water- 
way. Wherever the river turns, the entire panorama 
changes. Stately facades, august cathedrals, amphi- 
theatres, rotundas, castellated walls, and rows of 
time-stained ruins, surmounted by every form of 
tower, minaret, dome and spire, have been moulded 
from the cyclopean masses of rock that form the 
mighty defile." Who will say, after this, that water is 
not the grandest of all sculptors, as it cuts through 
hundreds of miles of rock, forming such magnificent 
granite groups, not only unsurpassed but unequalled 
by any of the works of man ? 
But we must not look upon water only as a cutting 
instrument, for it does more than merely carve out 
land in one place, it also carries it away and lays it 
down elsewhere ; and in this it is more like a modeller 
in clay, who smooths off the material from one part of 
his figure to put it upon another. 
Running water is not only always carrying away 
mud, but at the same time laying it down here and 
there wherever it flows. When a torrent brings down 
stones and gravel from the mountains, it will depend 
on the size and weight of the pieces how long they 
will be in falling through the water. If you take a 
handful of gravel and throw it into a glass full of 
water, you will notice that the stones in it will fall to 
the bottom at cnce, the grit and coarse sand will take 
