File:The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London (12733618995).jpg

Of THE VALLEY OF THE KHINE.
91
same general outline is seen near Bheineck (fig. 9), where the terraced
form above the river cliff is well preserved. Finally, just about the
View near JtheinecJc.
mouth of the gorge above the Siebengebirge, looking up the river,
the long hilly slopes on the coast are seen descending towards the
Ehine, as in fig. 10, ending in a terrace («) similar in height and
Fig. 10. — View near the Siebengebirge, looking south.
general character to those previously mentioned. In fact from end
to end of the gorge there are constant recurrences of these forms,
on approximately corresponding levels above the Ehine, and at other
elevations besides.
As the gorge was being gradually cut out and deepened, and as a
consequence of this the Ehine, wandering through the plain beyond
Bingen, by degrees lowered the surface of that broad part of the
valley; so just in proportion the Maine, the Neckar, the Murg, the
Kinzig, the Elz, and other tributary rivers also lowered their
channels

in other words, when the Ehine flowed at a higher level,
the valleys of the tributary streams were also proportionately higher

and this remark equally applies to the tributaries of the Ehine on
either side of the gorge, such as the Lahn, the Moselle, and many
smaller streams. By this means we arrive at the post-Miocene
history of the deepening of river- valleys over very large areas

and
the reasoning now applied to the Ehine is equally applicable to
the Danube and other European rivers of equal importance.
One other minor point remains with regard to the history of the
Ehine. When the great Ehine-glacier, aided by tributary streams
of ice, spread westward in the valley some distance below the junc-
tion of the Ehine and the Aar, vast quantities of moraine-matter
must have been shed from its western end or edge. The large
bodies of water that then flowed from a glacier so enormous
carried great part of this moraine-matter down the course of