by rain and perhaps by melting snows, to carry away the loosened mould;
then centuries upon centuries more of flowing and of rainfall to wash
the debris clean and complete the colossal work.

I say the rocks that jutted up through the soil, for the kloof was not
clean cut. All along its sides, and here and there in its arena, stood
mighty columns or fingers of rock, not solid indeed, but formed by huge
boulders piled mason fashion one upon another, as though the Titans of
some dead age had employed themselves in building them up, overcoming
their tendency to fall by the mere crushing weight above, that kept them
steady even when the wild breath of the storms came howling down the
gorge and tried its strength against them. About a hundred paces from
the near end of the chasm, some ninety or more feet in height, rose
the most remarkable of these giant pillars, to which the remains at
Stonehenge are but as toys. It was formed of seven huge boulders, the
largest, that at the bottom, about the size of a moderate cottage,
and the smallest, that at the top, perhaps some eight or ten feet in
diameter. These boulders were rounded like a cricket-ball--evidently
through the action of water--and yet the hand of Nature had contrived
to balance them, each one smaller than that beneath, the one upon
the other, and to keep them so. But this was not always the case. For
instance, a very similar mass which once stood on the near side of the
perfect pillar had fallen, all except its two foundation stones, and
the rocks that formed it lay scattered about like monstrous petrified
cannon-balls. One of these had split in two, and seated on it, looking
very small and far off at the bottom of that vast gulf, John discovered
Jess Croft, apparently engaged in sketching.

He dismounted from his shooting pony, and looking about him perceived
that it was possible to descend by following the course of the stream