In The Dry Season The Stream Runs At The Bottom Of A Narrow
And Deep Groove, Whose Sides Are Polished And Fluted By The Boiling
Action Of The Water In Flood, Like The Rims Of Ancient Eastern Wells
By The Draw-Ropes.
The breadth of the groove is often not more than
from forty to sixty yards, and it has some sharp turnings, double
channels, and little cataracts in it.
As we steamed up, the masts of
the "Ma Robert," though some thirty feet high, did not reach the
level of the flood-channel above, and the man in the chains sung out,
"No bottom at ten fathoms." Huge pot-holes, as large as draw-wells,
had been worn in the sides, and were so deep that in some instances,
when protected from the sun by overhanging boulders, the water in
them was quite cool. Some of these holes had been worn right
through, and only the side next the rock remained; while the sides of
the groove of the flood-channel were polished as smooth as if they
had gone through the granite-mills of Aberdeen. The pressure of the
water must be enormous to produce this polish. It had wedged round
pebbles into chinks and crannies of the rocks so firmly that, though
they looked quite loose, they could not be moved except with a
hammer. The mighty power of the water here seen gave us an idea of
what is going on in thousands of cataracts in the world.
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