Grade (slope)

“ It is equally common for a hill to appear as quite a respectable mountain when seen from one point, but entirely to disappear from view when seen from the opposite direction, so gentle is the slope.
These ranges, such as they are, occur at intervals of a few miles up to thirty or more, and between them scrub-covered plains, sand-plains, or flat stretches of open forest are found. In the deeper undulations, long chains of dry salt-lakes and samphire-flats are met with, occupying a narrow belt, perhaps one hundred miles in length. ”

“ Always the course in new territory is {28} according to the slope of the ground. River-bank is followed where possible; but where windfall or precipice drives back from the bed of the river over the mountain spurs, the pathfinder takes his bearings from countless signs. Moss is on the north side of tree-trunks. A steep slope compels a zigzag, corkscrew ascent, but the slope of the ground guides the climber as to the way to go; for slope means valley; and in valleys are streams; and in the stream is the 'float,' which is to the prospector the one shining signal to be followed. ”

“ The steep verdant slope, whose base is at the water's edge is topped by a lofty rampart of broken, turreted rocks, which are exquisitely rich and mellow in color--mainly dark browns and dull greens, but splashed with other tints. ”

“ For 1,000 feet we had some very awkward rock-work made risky by loose fragments; and beyond this, a laborious grind of 5,000 feet up a wooded slope at an angle of 45 degrees. For hours we toiled up that interminable mountain-side with never a glimpse of a view to encourage us ”

“ Slopes are openings begun at the outcrop of an inclined seam, which they follow down into the earth. Slopes are usually made with three compartments side by side, two of which are used as hoistways and the third for the traveling-way, piping, etc. When the dip of the slope is under 40 degrees the slope is made about seven feet high, but when the dip exceeds 40 degrees cages have to be used and a great height is necessary. ”

“ We got on to the main ridge just below the final peak, and, finding ourselves on a bad route, again retired defeated. We were, however, rewarded by the most glorious views on every side. It will perhaps also be as well to draw a veil over this descent. We got into some awkward situations, and I have a vivid recollection of cutting steps down an almost perpendicular slope; of making some very awkward traverses across others; and of dangling at the end of the rope on a smooth rock in order to make a step in the ice at its edge. ”

“ Then once more the climber varies his style of progress, for here the slope is exceedingly steep, and he has come to a narrow gully, where his zig-{149}zags would have to be very short, and instead of interspersing every few steps with a kick-turn he stands sideways to the slope and puts down one foot horizontally across it and brings the other close up to and parallel with it. ”

“ Precipices rising vertically more than 100 feet are very rare among the secondary hills of which we are speaking. I am not aware of any cliff in England or Wales where a plumb-line can swing clear for 200 feet; and even although sometimes, with intervals, breaks, and steps, we get perhaps 800 feet of a slope of 60° or 70°, yet not only are these cases very rare, but even these have little influence on the great contours of a mountain 4000 or 5000 feet in elevation, being commonly balanced by intervals of ascent not exceeding 6° or 8°. ”

“ At irregular intervals along the slope there are deep hollows—shallow near the summit, deepening and widening as they sink, till by the hedge at the foot they broaden out into a little valley in themselves. These great green grooves furrow the sides of the downs everywhere, and for that reason it is best to walk either on the ridge or in the plain at the bottom: if you follow the slope half-way up you are continually descending and ascending the steep sides of these gullys, which adds much to the fatigue. ”

“ Where the slope was steepest there was erected a sort of platform, so that the runner, flying down the slope above, was shot into the air, touching ground again yards below. Or, on other mornings, when things went well, and there had been no hot-and-cold period the evening before, he tobogganed down the slope below the house to the edge of the skating-rink and sat there in the snow, with everything round frozen hard, yet feeling perfectly warm, so potent were the beams of this ineffable sun through the thin, dry air. ”

“ In the worst places the guides point out to the traveller where to plant his feet and hold him up if he begins to slip. Shrubs, tough grass, and here and there a stunted pine-tree give a welcome hold, but on the steepest slopes they are wanting. The last slope up to the foot of the cliff—a very long and steep declivity of loose gravel which gives way at every step—is most fatiguing. As I was struggling slowly up it with the guides, we heard the furious barking of dogs away up the mountains on the opposite side of the glen. ”

“ The long, low, green slope of the Park, the rookery elms on it, the chestnuts above the roadside fence, are among the pleasantest things which the besieging streets have made pleasanter. Haling Down, a straight-ridged and treeless long hill parallel to the road, is a continuation of that slope. In the midst it is broken by a huge chalk-pit, bushy and weathered, and its whole length is carved by an old road, always clearly marked either by the bare chalk of its banks or the stout thorn-bushes attending its course. ”

“ Bolton, jun., has, since I was there before, inclosed forty acres on the top and steep slope to the water, and begun to plant them. This will be a prodigious addition; for the slope forming the bold shore for a considerable space, and having projections from which the wood will all be seen in the gentle hollows of the hill, the effect will be amazingly fine. Walks and a riding are tracing out, which will command fresh beauties at every step. The spots from which a variety of beautiful views are seen are numerous. ”

“ In places we scrambled for hours along precipitous slopes, cumbered with fallen rocks, and with swirling rapids below us; a mile or so of easier going where the country was more open, and again a mountain spur would shoulder the river aside. This time the abrupt slope would be dense with high and tangled thorn-bush through which we had to cut a way, whilst here and there a huge fallen rock or a whole landslide from the cliffs above would bar further progress, till we had crawled round, over, or under them, at imminent risk of breaking our ponies’ necks or legs, as well as our own. ”

“ While it can be enjoyed to perfection only at the slides specially prepared for the purpose, any smooth sharp slope with a bit of level plain at its foot, well covered with snow having a good hard crust, affords the means for fine sport. ”

“ As the sun begins to set they are scattered over the western end of the Downs, still cropping the short grass clothing those chalk and flint slopes which from immemorial time has alone flourished there. They wander singly or in small groups on such parts of the slope as the intrusive golfer still allows, and gradually fall into larger groups which follow somewhat indefinite paths. ”

“ The leader is not able to derive much help from the rope in case of a slip, but it is as well for the second man to climb thirty feet up the right wall of the branch gully, so as to be higher than the pioneer. The buttress looks much broken from below, but the general slope is to our disadvantage, and the final traverse is along a crumbling ledge of earth and grass. Frost occasionally makes the climbing easier, by binding the earth firmly to the rock. ”

“ If we have any doubt as to the security of a slope, which we shall have when the angle of the slope and quality of the snow are varying and the resultant stability is indeterminable, we must ascend or descend it vertically, if possible, or on very steep zigzags. ”

“ When within about 30 feet of the ground, vegetation begins to shew itself, and thence the slope is a gentle one in the reverse direction till it meets the plain; the outline, therefore, of the entire hill here is a curve of a double flexure, and is singularly beautiful. ”

“ We keep the rope on unless we are certain that the breaking of a step or a slip will lead to no worse results. If there is a long, steep wall of ice or snow below, or the suggestion of crevasses or a bergschrund, or a rock cliff, or even a section of the slope which we cannot see and which may contain a cliff, we may take no chance, and the rope must be retained. ”

“ Not only may a slope seem to be greater or less than it really is, but under certain circumstances a dead level [Pg 142] sometimes appears as an upward or downward inclination, while a gentle ascent may even be mistaken for a descent, and vice versa. ”

“ Now the tendency of aqueous action over a large elevated surface is always to make that surface symmetrically and evenly convex and dome-like, sloping gradually more and more as it descends, until it reaches an inclination of about 40°, at which slope it will descend perfectly straight to the valley; for at that slope the soil washed from above will accumulate upon the hill-side, as it cannot lie in steeper beds. ”

“ Having the horizontal sections of the hill given, the degree of slope should be written upon it in pencil in as many places as is necessary. The distances between the centres of the shading lines may then be marked off upon the upper curve of the zone from the scale of shade, and the lines of greatest descent drawn through the points thus determined. The exact proportion of black to white being then adopted, the colour will express the degree of the slope, and the line of greatest descent will show its direction. ”

“ At the highest point of the crescent near its middle the road is about twelve feet below the summit of the wall, and only four or five feet above high-water mark. Diagram number two is a cross section at this place, drawn to scale from personal measurements. The slope inward, it will be noticed, is comparatively gradual and quite regular, while the sea-face is formed in terraces, very regular and individually steep. The general seaward angle of inclination is fully twice as great as the landward slope, and possesses some decidedly interesting characteristics. ”

“ Every here and there, where the slate cliffs run down in steep slopes to the valleys, you can see from the very top to the bottom, that is to say on a slope of some nine hundred feet, what look like little streams that are perhaps a foot wide at the top and ten or a dozen at the bottom where they open out. ”

“ Presently the rock walls on either side grew contracted to a hundred or so feet, and then the green stream rushed in smooth slope to a gateway of eighty feet in width, through which, with parabolic swoop, it leaps 112 feet with such depth on its brink, that the deep-emerald green is not lost till it strikes a ledge at the bottom, where a large part of the falling sheet is shot off at an angle into the air, half as high up as the fall itself. ”

“ The slope upon which Golden is situated is a comparatively gentle one, but directly back of the city the angle changes and the surface of the world mounts abruptly toward the heavens, which seem to rest like a great coverlet upon the upland snows. ”

“ We will only add, that the inclined plain constituting the western side of the valley, or, in other words, the great slope down which the Red, Canadian, Arkansa, Konzas, Platte, and other large rivers have their courses, has [Pg 180] probably a greater general inclination than any other side of the valley. In forming an estimate of the aggregate descent of this slope, commencing at tide-water, and extending to the base of the Rocky Mountains, Pike allows 8000 feet, which probably exceeds the truth by more than one-half. ”

“ From the summit of one of the peaks in this range, the climber beholds a sea of mountains running in long, nearly parallel, ridges, sometimes uniting and rising to a higher altitude, and again dividing, so as to form countless spurs and a complicated topography. In this range each ridge usually presents a lofty escarpment and bare precipitous walls of rock on its eastern face, while the opposite slope is more gentle. ”

“ It is not a wise plan for any but hardened climbers, for the slope soon became so sharp that it made one giddy to look back down the mountain, and the footing was often difficult because of the shelving stone and fragments of loose rock. Small bushes were the only growth, and they were often eagerly seized upon to give the needful purchase to lift us onward and upward. ”

“ Should the beds be upheaved or intermixed, then a flat slope is necessary and no covering except a wall may make it stable at a steep slope, and, for instance, should clay be always in a semi-saturated condition, 3 to 1 is the least slope at which it will permanently stand, and it will usually require a more moderate inclination. ”

“ But if we examine the final result of this double waste, we shall see that when this ultimate ratio of equality is established throughout the upper and lower talus and the natural slope of the hill, the road must disappear altogether, instead of maintaining, as it often does, a breadth of 70 feet upon an uniform slope of the face of the hill. There is another circumstance in their construction equally repugnant to this hypothesis. In no one instance is the surface level, or even nearly so, as the profiles will show. ”

“ Farther on our march we found other immense deposits of grey ashes and sand alternately—one great stretch particularly, at an elevation of 1,600 ft. Water at that spot filtered through from underneath and rendered the slope a grassy meadow of the most refreshing green. We were rising all the time, first going north-west, then due north. ”

“ The great slope seen on the left, rising about seven thousand feet above the ravine, is nothing but the back of one sheet of limestone, whose broken edge forms the first cliff at the top, a height of about six hundred feet, the second cliff being the edge of another bed emergent beneath it, and the slope beyond, the surface of a third. ”