Instances of alteration of the courses of streams are common, but these changes are met with for the most part in the alluvial plains and flood areas at low elevations where the streams are approaching their termination in sea or lake. The instance here noticed is of a rarer kind, where a small Devonshire stream, the Bovey River, has accomplished, with the help of contributory forces, earth sculpture apparently enormously out of proportion to its present insignificant dimensions, and managed to shorten its journey to join the Teign by altering the direction of the middle part of its course at a point where its elevation is considerable.