When you are older you shall go to the mountains, and you shall judge for yourself.

Still, I must say that I never saw a valley, however deep, or a cliff, however high, which had not been scooped out by water; and that even the mountain-tops which stand up miles aloft in jagged peaks and pinnacles against the sky were cut out at first, and are being cut and sharpened still, by little else save water, soft and hard; that is, by rain, frost, and ice.
Water, and nothing else, has sawn out such a chasm as that through which the ships run up to Bristol, between Leigh Wood and St.Vincent's Rocks.
Water, and nothing else, has shaped those peaks of the Matterhorn, or the Weisshorn, or the Pic du Midi of the Pyrenees, of which you have seen sketches and photographs.

Just so water might saw out Hartford Bridge Flat, if it had time enough, into a labyrinth of valleys, and hills, and peaks standing alone; as it has done already by Ambarrow, and Edgbarrow, and the Folly Hill on the other side of the vale.
I see you are astonished at the notion that water can make Alps.

But it was just because I knew you would be astonished at Madam How's doing so great a thing with so simple a tool, that I began by showing you how she was doing the same thing in a small way here upon these flats.

For the safest way to learn Madam How's methods is to watch her at work in little corners at commonplace business, which will not astonish or frighten us, nor put huge hasty guesses and dreams into our heads.