A Journey in Other Worlds [68]
at
dinner, "how the sun, at a distance of four hundred and
eighty-three million miles, can raise the amount of water we have
here passing us, and compared with which the discharge of the
greatest river on earth would be insignificant, to say nothing of
the stream we ascended before reaching this."
"We must remember," replied Cortlandt, "that many of the
conditions are different here from those that exist on earth. We
know that some of the streams are warm, and even hot, and that
the temperature of Deepwaters Bay, and doubtless that of the
ocean also, is considerably higher than ours. This would
facilitate evaporation. The density of the atmosphere and the
tremendous winds, of which I suspect we may see more later, must
also help the sun very much in its work of raising vapour. But
the most potent factor is undoubtedly the vast size of the basin
that these rivers drain."
"The great speed at which the atmospheric currents move," said
Bearwarden, "coupled with the comparative lowness of the mountain
chains and the slight obstruction they offer to their passage,
must distribute the rain very thoroughly, notwithstanding the
great unbroken area of the continents. There can be no such
state of things here as exists in the western part of South
America, where the Andes are so high that any east-bound clouds,
in crossing them, are shoved up so far into a cold region that
all moisture they may have brought from the Pacific is condensed
into rain, with which parts of the western slope are deluged,
while clouds from the Atlantic have come so far they have already
dispersed their moisture, in consequence of which the region just
east of the Andes gets little if any rain. It is bad for a
continent to have its high mountains near the ocean from which it
should get its rain, and good for it to have them set well back."
"I should not be surprised," said Cortlandt, "if we saw another
waterfall to-morrow, though not in the shape of rain. In the
hour before we stopped we began to see rapids and protruding
rocks. That means that we are coming to a part of the channel
that is comparatively new, since the older parts have had time to
wear smooth. I take it, then, that we are near the foot of a
retreating cascade, which we may hope soon to see. That is
exactly the order in which we found smooth water and rapids in
river No. 1, which we have named the Harlem."
After this, not being tired, they used the remaining dark hours
for recording their recent adventures.
CHAPTER XII.
HILLS AND VALLEYS.
With the first light they resumed their journey, and an hour
after setting out they sighted, as Cortlandt had predicted,
another cloud of vapour. The fall--for such it proved to be--was
more beautiful than the other, for, though the volume of water
was not so great, it fell at one leap, without a break, and at
the same tremendous speed, a distance of more than a thousand
feet. The canon rang with the echoes, while the spray flew in
sheets against the smooth, glistening, sandstone walls. Instead
of coming from a river, as the first fall had, this poured at
once from the rocky lip, about two miles across, of a lake that
was eleven hundred feet above the surging mass in the vale below.
"It is a thousand pities," said Bearwarden, "that this cataract
has got so near its source; for, at the rate these streams must
cut, this one in a few hundred years, unless something is done to
prevent it, will have worn back to the lake, and then good-bye to
the falls, which will become a series of rapids. Perhaps the
first effect will be merely to reduce by a few feet the height of
the falls, in which case they will remain in practically the same
place."
About the shores of this lake they saw rhinoceroses with long
thick wool, and herds of creatures that much resembled buffaloes.
"I do not see," said Bearwarden, "why the identical species
should not exist here that till recently, in a geological sense,
inhabited
dinner, "how the sun, at a distance of four hundred and
eighty-three million miles, can raise the amount of water we have
here passing us, and compared with which the discharge of the
greatest river on earth would be insignificant, to say nothing of
the stream we ascended before reaching this."
"We must remember," replied Cortlandt, "that many of the
conditions are different here from those that exist on earth. We
know that some of the streams are warm, and even hot, and that
the temperature of Deepwaters Bay, and doubtless that of the
ocean also, is considerably higher than ours. This would
facilitate evaporation. The density of the atmosphere and the
tremendous winds, of which I suspect we may see more later, must
also help the sun very much in its work of raising vapour. But
the most potent factor is undoubtedly the vast size of the basin
that these rivers drain."
"The great speed at which the atmospheric currents move," said
Bearwarden, "coupled with the comparative lowness of the mountain
chains and the slight obstruction they offer to their passage,
must distribute the rain very thoroughly, notwithstanding the
great unbroken area of the continents. There can be no such
state of things here as exists in the western part of South
America, where the Andes are so high that any east-bound clouds,
in crossing them, are shoved up so far into a cold region that
all moisture they may have brought from the Pacific is condensed
into rain, with which parts of the western slope are deluged,
while clouds from the Atlantic have come so far they have already
dispersed their moisture, in consequence of which the region just
east of the Andes gets little if any rain. It is bad for a
continent to have its high mountains near the ocean from which it
should get its rain, and good for it to have them set well back."
"I should not be surprised," said Cortlandt, "if we saw another
waterfall to-morrow, though not in the shape of rain. In the
hour before we stopped we began to see rapids and protruding
rocks. That means that we are coming to a part of the channel
that is comparatively new, since the older parts have had time to
wear smooth. I take it, then, that we are near the foot of a
retreating cascade, which we may hope soon to see. That is
exactly the order in which we found smooth water and rapids in
river No. 1, which we have named the Harlem."
After this, not being tired, they used the remaining dark hours
for recording their recent adventures.
CHAPTER XII.
HILLS AND VALLEYS.
With the first light they resumed their journey, and an hour
after setting out they sighted, as Cortlandt had predicted,
another cloud of vapour. The fall--for such it proved to be--was
more beautiful than the other, for, though the volume of water
was not so great, it fell at one leap, without a break, and at
the same tremendous speed, a distance of more than a thousand
feet. The canon rang with the echoes, while the spray flew in
sheets against the smooth, glistening, sandstone walls. Instead
of coming from a river, as the first fall had, this poured at
once from the rocky lip, about two miles across, of a lake that
was eleven hundred feet above the surging mass in the vale below.
"It is a thousand pities," said Bearwarden, "that this cataract
has got so near its source; for, at the rate these streams must
cut, this one in a few hundred years, unless something is done to
prevent it, will have worn back to the lake, and then good-bye to
the falls, which will become a series of rapids. Perhaps the
first effect will be merely to reduce by a few feet the height of
the falls, in which case they will remain in practically the same
place."
About the shores of this lake they saw rhinoceroses with long
thick wool, and herds of creatures that much resembled buffaloes.
"I do not see," said Bearwarden, "why the identical species
should not exist here that till recently, in a geological sense,
inhabited