In many parts of the island the bottoms of the valleys are covered
in an extraordinary manner by myriads of great loose angular
fragments of the quartz rock, forming "streams of stones." These
have been mentioned with surprise by every voyager since the time
of Pernety. The blocks are not waterworn, their angles being only
a little blunted; they vary in size from one or two feet in
diameter to ten, or even more than twenty times as much. They are
not thrown together into irregular piles, but are spread out into
level sheets or great streams. It is not possible to ascertain
their thickness, but the water of small streamlets can be heard
trickling through the stones many feet below the surface. The
actual depth is probably great, because the crevices between the
lower fragments must long ago have been filled up with sand. The
width of these sheets of stones varies from a few hundred feet to a
mile; but the peaty soil daily encroaches on the borders, and even
forms islets wherever a few fragments happen to lie close together.
In a valley south of Berkeley Sound, which some of our party called
the "great valley of fragments," it was necessary to cross an
uninterrupted band half a mile wide, by jumping from one pointed
stone to another.
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