The expression "streams of stones," which
immediately occurred to every one, conveys the same idea. These
scenes are on the spot rendered more striking by the contrast of
the low, rounded forms of the neighbouring hills.
I was interested by finding on the highest peak of one range (about
700 feet above the sea) a great arched fragment, lying on its
convex side, or back downwards. Must we believe that it was fairly
pitched up in the air, and thus turned? Or, with more probability,
that there existed formerly a part of the same range more elevated
than the point on which this monument of a great convulsion of
nature now lies. As the fragments in the valleys are neither
rounded nor the crevices filled up with sand, we must infer that
the period of violence was subsequent to the land having been
raised above the waters of the sea. In a transverse section within
these valleys the bottom is nearly level, or rises but very little
towards either side. Hence the fragments appear to have travelled
from the head of the valley; but in reality it seems more probable
that they have been hurled down from the nearest slopes; and that
since, by a vibratory movement of overwhelming force, the fragments
have been levelled into one continuous sheet.
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