ABSTRACT
Consistency in opinion is the slow poison of intellectual life, the destroyer of its vividness and energy. The degree to which rainwash can operate is generally severely curtailed by the presence of vegetation cover. However, there are situations where special conditions have intervened to remove vegetation, or maintain vegetation-free zones, and they will be considered first of all. Litter dams and microterraces were established on hillslopes within a very few days of a bushfire and this immediately reduced the rate of sediment removal from hillslopes by rainwash, for a great deal of the potentially mobile material was temporarily stabilized. During the first year after a fire soil loss by rainwash is likely to exceed the biological mounding rate. Over a five-year period the highest rates of average rainwash match the maximum rate of mounding. It is now possible to consider the combined effects of bioturbation and rainwash on topsoil formation.
