[Hardy-l] comprehension nano-puzzle in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles"

[Keith Wilson]

Presumably it means that over aeons the river had carried the "particles" of earth that had cumulatively created the expanse of land -- the passage goes on to say that the river "now exhausted, aged, and attenuated, lay serpentining along through the midst of its former spoils" (i. e. the deposits of earth it had captured in the flow of its course and carried there).
 
Best,
 
Keith Wilson
 
 
Just re-reading Tess for the umpteenth time and noticed I didn't quite understand a small piece of text:  Ch. XVI, Phase The Third, p. 122 (about 20th para.) in the 1998 Riquelme edition.
 
The river had stolen from the higher tracts and brought in particles to the vale all this horizontal land; ... .
 
To fit my (modern?) ear should I insert, say, 'along' after all ?  Otherwise my brain keeps wanting to kick out the preceding the and make vale a verb!!
 
Any comments or cures around, please?
 
Royd Whitlock
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