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IvIVERS AND TIIEIR DEPOSITS.
67
the rocky slopes of the mountain sides meeting each
other at an angle ; this angle being more or less choked
with fragments of fallen rock, among which a torrent
roars. These valleys vary considerably in their features,
according to their elevation, the steepness of their sides,
and the character of the rock composing them. Some
are deep gorges, with barren and almost perpendicular
walls ; others have a more gradual incline, and their
sides are covered with woods or cultivated ledges and
slopes. The other is the open basin-shaped valley.
This, like all valleys of any considerable extent, gives
path to a river or small stream ; but if the wide
basin-shaped valley be deepest in the middle, as is usually
the case, the river fills this hollow and forms a lake,
spreading itself out in calm repose after its fretful
journey among the rocks above. Thus the Lake of
Geneva is the sleeping Rhone; that of Constance, the
Rhine reposing in like manner. The Mediterranean
is a larger valley filled with waters where many rivers
sleep, and the ocean is the main valley of the world,
the final resting-place of all the rivers.
There is another modification of this open
basin-shaped valley, where a lake of earth, generally fertile
soil, takes the place of the outspread river. This is
easily accounted for. The toiling river brings a
burden with it, which it lays down at its resting-place.
So long as it continues in rapid motion, stirred and
eddied by the resisting rock, it is turbid and milky
with the suspended particles it has abraded from the
mountain sides. As soon as it becomes quiescent, these
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