o have slid three miles, consisting of rocks, tc., with an average breadth of a quarter The excavations commenced generally in w yards in depth, and a few rods in width, d the mountain, widening and deepeny became vast chasms. Forests of spruce were apparently prostrated with as much. had been fields of grain. The valleys of munoosuck and Saco presented for many nterrupted scene of desolation; all the bridges I away and the ground strewed with the es and rocks, and in many instances large soil. In some places the road was excavath of 15 or 20 feet; and in others it was coocks, trees and soil to as great a height. In es, as shown by the remaining marks, the o the height of 25 feet above its ordinary thing are of little consequence when comhe human suffering which this catastrophe or a family of nine persons were destroyed on the 28th, and not one lived to relate the cir ily, named Willey, occupied a house at the mountain, a most lonely place, six miles from iman habitation. It was a resting place for On the morning of the 28th the house was ing but not a human being was there. In of a few days seven out of the nine bodies at a short distance below the house, buried ruins of the mountain, and most of them mangled. It appeared that one of the heaviest the top of the mountain had rushed in the uous manner towards the house, but when eet of it had divided, and passed on each side, house untouched, but sweeping away the stacses. At this time it is supposed that the famihouse, and met their destruction; had they rewould have been safe.-Silliman's Journal 1829. the Valley of Bagnes, in 1818. The Valley forms a part of the main valley of the Rhone, sses the river Dranse, which falls into the Rhone lake. In 1818, in consequence of the fall of avahe Dranse was completely dammed up, so that a ice remained across its channel, until the melting ow in the spring, formed a lake in its bed, a mile f in length, about seven hundred feet wide, and laces two hundred feet deep. To prevent the nces apprehended from the sudden bursting of er, the people cut a tunnel through it, several feet in length, before the water had risen to any ble height. When the water had accumulated each this tunnel, or gallery, it ran through, and he ice it drained off about one half of the lake. gth, on the approach of the hot season, the cenon of the remaining mass of ice gave way with a us crash, and the residue of the lake was empIf an hour. In the course of its descent, the wantered several narrow gorges, and at each of these a great height, and then bursting its barriers, rward with increased violence, sweeping along uses, trees, bridges, and cultivated lands. For er part of its course, the flood resembled a moving ɔcks and mud, rather than of water. Some fragprimary rock of enormous magnitude, and which dimensions, might be compared, without exagto houses, were torn out of a more ancient alluborne down for a quarter of a mile. The velociwater in the first part of its course, was thirtyper second, which diminished to six feet, before d the lake of Geneva, where it arrived in six e distance being 45 miles. Ma ood left behind it on the plains of Martigny, thourees torn up by the roots, together with the fragmany buildings. Some of the houses in the town ny were filled with mud up to the second story. anding in the plain, where the town stands, it co the Rhone, and did no further damage. vere destroyed by this flood, and the bodies of ersons were found on the surface of the Geneva ty miles from the place where they were swept tions precisely similar, and from the same cause, ded to have happened in former periods. In town of Martigny was destroyed by such a flood, and from sixty to eighty astrophe which t hundred and forty perso For several months af ver Dranse, having no tion continually from on arrying away newly er and continuing to be ch earthy matter as the f S Ed. Phil. Jour. vol vol. 1. p. 194. Now although we ha changes have been wro te power of running s ret all these effects con The appearances enume The phenomena presen the Pyrenees, and the cause, but a sudden and one has thought fit t and of which history de Noachian deluge. CHANGES sp The Theory of sprin A present, our object springs have had in ch It is obvious that aly powerful, will bag which they run carating effects are sc Springs which contain iderable quantities of which is deposited alo logists term calcareo These deposites leares, bits of wood, are so solid as to be ty of these springs chiefly in volcanic al In those parts of ugh we have no disposition to deny that great e been wrought on the face of the earth by running streams, the bursting of lakes, &c. effects combined, utterly fail to account for ces enumerated under the article “Deluge." ena presented by the great valleys of the Alps, s, and the Jura, cannot be attributed to any sudden and mighty torrent of water, such as hought fit to ascribe to the bursting of a lake, h history contains no account, except that of 1 deluge, CHANGES EFFECTED BY SPRINGS. ry of springs will be reserved for another place. our object will be to show the effects which had in changing the surface of the globe. ous that springs of pure water, unless uncom rful, will produce but little effect on the surface they run, and with a few exceptions, their exects are scarcely to be taken into account. But ch contain carbonic acid gas, often hold conantities of calcareous matter in solution, and osited along their courses, producing what geocalcareous tufa, or travertine. posites are generally porous, and mixed with of wood, mud, &c. but when more pure, they as to be employed for building stones. Ma springs are thermal, or warm, and abound olcanic countries. parts of France and Italy which skims th innumerable mineral springs, chiefly containing e of lime, issue from the ground. As the water es, the lime is left on the surface, and thus the a some parts of Tuscany is covered to a considernt with the kind of deposite called Travertine, oticed. In some places these deposites are solid >th on the surface, much resembling currents of of San Vignone. This spring is also in Tuscaffords a striking example of the rapid precipitarbonate of lime from thermal waters. The spring >m near the summit of a hill about one hundred The water is hot, but Mr. Lyell, from whom unt is taken, does not give its temperature. id is the deposition from this water, that a pipe rom the spring to the baths, and inclined at an anrty degrees, is found to contain a coat of solid half a foot thick every year. A mass of solid ow the hill, formed by this water, is two hundred This is employed as a building stone, and in g it, Roman remains of art, such as tiles, have nd five or six feet below the surface, being covered posite. of San Filippo. These baths are situated only les from those already described. The waters pply them are impregnated with carbonate of sulphate of lime, (gypsum.) They flow from g immediately into a pond where in twenty years ock is deposited thirty feet thick. A curious which produces medallions in basso-relievo is -n at this place. cory The solid matter left stone and gypsum rock. of a mile in breadth, an dred and fifty feet in thi ste terminates abruptly which carries away the the spring, otherwis extensive. mat The quantity of how the newness of th der of things on its s eriod when Mr. Lyell Tas at Queenstown, and depositions as they d scertain they did at the ght to have been at l te, however, that thes anic heat, might ha sand years. is apparent from w areous springs, that in t must have been mad arce. But it must no in its nature, being co water is first allowed to stand in a cistern where nate of lime is deposited. It is then conveyed to er through a tube, from the end of which it falls elve feet, the current being broken by numerous cks crossing each other, and by which means the dispersed around the room. Here are placed the of the medallions to be formed, which are first ver with a little soap. The water striking on ulds leaves particles of carbonate of lime, which y increasing, leaves exact and beautifully white heir figures. ad that even such distr k such changes as a Nitions Springs. cess by which water fint, vet in t placed There is, h the Tch by a previous con er, and which, perha employed by natu d then melted with a hole becomes soluble great bining any considerable temperatures; and a matter left by this spring, is a mass of limeosum rock, a mile and a quarter long, the third breadth, and in some places at least two hunfeet in thickness. The length of this depoes abruptly, being crossed by a small stream, saway the undeposited matter with the waters , otherwise it would have been much more tity of matter deposited from these springs, vness of the earth, or at least of the present gs on its surface; for had they existed at the Mr. Lyell supposes the cataract of Niagara stown, and discharged their waters, and forms as they do at the present day, and which it y did at the time of the Romans, these strata e been at least ten thousand feet thick. It is r, that these thermal springs being caused by , might have been formed within the last two rs. ent from what has been stated concerning calgs, that in the lapse of ages considerable chane been made in the earth's surface from this it must not be forgotten that this cause is lore, being confined chiefly to volcanic districts; such districts seldom contain springs which anges as are above described. Springs. Although we possess no chemical hich water can be made to dissolve pure silex, the great laboratory of nature, this effect is There is, however, a process in chemistry, in revious combination, silex becomes soluble in hich, perhaps, affords an analogy to the prod by nature. If silex be finely pulverized, lted with a quantity of common alkali, the es soluble in hot water. Now springs cononsiderable quantity of silex, are always of atures; and it is to the great degree of heat at their sources, together with small portions ich volcanic rocks contain, and which the es, that we are to attribute the property these s, of holding silex in solution. Springs cononsiderable quantity of silex, are, however, rare and are mentioned here rather on this |