LETTER IX.

Journey to Pittsfield-Bursting of a Cloud-Observations on Forest Trees-Difference in the quantity of Snow falling in places near to each other-Curious origin of a Thunder Storm, and of a Tornado-Account of Moving Rocks-White Frosts -Return.

Dear Sir,

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 16th, Mr. D. and myself left our friends at Williamstown, and, rode to Pittsfield. For several miles our journey lay in a different road from that, which I had taken the preceding year. In this part of our route we were presented with two interesting objects. One of them was a semi-amphitheatre, formed to the eye, by this vast pile of mountains; only less magnificent than that, which I formerly described.*

The other object was a spot on Saddle Mountain, where, to use the language of the neighbouring inhabitants, a cloud burst upon its Western side, very near the Southern summit.

This certainly was a very extraordinary phenomenon. The following account of it, an imperfect one however, is the best which I have been able to obtain. In the Autumn of 1784, in the latter part of the night, a deluge of water descended from this mountain. A family, which lived in a house at some distance from the foot of the mountain, not far from a brook, were suddenly awaked out of their sleep by the united roaring of the wind and the torrent. In their fright they hastily dressed themselves, and escaped from the house, the ground floor of which was by this time six inches under water; and fled to that of a neighbouring inhabitant. When they returned in the morning, they found their own dwelling so completely swept away, that no part of it was left. The brook, through the channel of which this flood discharged itself, had never before, not even in the highest freshets, approached the house by a considerable distance.

Mr. C, in his excursion to this mountain, on the day when we left Williamstown, followed the path of this torrent from its *See description of the Notch of the White Mountains.

commencement through the principal part of the tract which it ravaged. He informed me, that the channel worn by these waters, began instaneously, a little below the summit; and was there, and in various other places, as he judged, twenty feet deep; and, where widest, at least twenty feet in breadth. A tract of about ten acres, was entirely desolated of its trees; which the flood and the storm had thrown down; and which were lying on the lowest part of the tract in heaps of confusion. The face of this ground was now either bare, or covered with small shrubs, apparently sprung up since the period of this devastation. Every appearance, which met his eye, corresponded with the opinion, and language, of the people in the vicinity.

In the month of Oct. 1812, I received the following account of the same extraordinary event from the Rev. Bancroft Fowler, of Windsor in Vermont. This gentleman explored the spot, soon after we ascended Saddle Mountain. I shall give it, chiefly, in Mr. Fowler's words.

The descent of water, which was a theme of our conversation, commenced on the Western side of the highest summit of Saddle Mountain, at a point, about two thirds, or three fourths of its perpendicular height from the bottom. For two or three rods above the spot, where the ground first began to be broken, the trees, and shrubs appear to have been swept away by the violence of this deluge. The broken ground is at first not more than six feet wide; but rapidly becomes wider, as we descend; so that within one hundred and fifty feet it is about three rods in breadth, and in the widest place five or six. Towards the lower limit, its breadth gradually diminishes, until it terminates in a gutter, which in some places is five or six feet deep. This continues several rods; and then branches into other channels, which though smaller, and covered with leaves and moss, are discernable quite down to the brook at the foot of the Mountain. The whole length of the broken ground is about one hundred and thirty rods. In some parts of this space the surface appears to have been washed away, to the depth of from one and a half to two feet; but generally not more than from twelve to fifteen inches. The

side of the mountain, which is thus washed, is stony, and in some places rocky; but far from being a smooth, continued rock; as has been some times reported.

But, although the broken ground is not more than five or six rods in breadth, yet the trees and shrubs are entirely swept away to the distance of four or five rods further, on each side. Towards the bottom of this ground, there are standing a considerable number of stumps, and trees, from eight to fifteen inches in diameter, and from ten to twenty feet in height; the tops of which were broken off at the time of this deluge. Against these are lodged other trees, of various sizes, either broken off, or torn up by the roots, and carried down by the violence of the torrent.

According to the best information, which could be obtained from the neighbouring inhabitants, this deluge, which they call the bursting of a cloud, took place in Oct. 1784. The first knowledge which they had of it, was that a Mr. Wright, (if I remember the name,) who lived in a small house on the bank of the stream, which flows from the foot of the mountain, was suddenly awaked, about the dawn of day, by the noise of the torrent; and perceived, that his house was surrounded by water, which immediately rose so high, as to run in at the doors and windows. The family left the house as soon as possible; but not without much difficulty. The house itself was speedily overset by the current; and almost every article of the furniture, which it contained, washed away. The stream overflowed its banks, which are from four to six feet above its surface, about two miles. At this distance they are about ten and twelve feet in height; and the stream, three or four rods wide: yet even here it is said to have risen to their edge. At this distance, also, a mill pond was almost entirely filled with the earth, which was washed from the mountain.

The point, where the deluge began its ravages, Mr. Fowler supposes to have been about 2000 feet above the level of Williamstown. This number, however, and the others contained in this account, are not to be esteemed exact; but only such, as he judged to be nearest the truth.

upon

Few events in the natural world are more extraordinary than that, which I have described. A similar phenomenon is mentioned in a subsequent part of these letters, as having taken place on the Grand Monadnoc. I saw also the relics of another a mountain which rises at a small distance South of Manchester. The Hon. Timothy Edwards, who first mentioned to me the ravages, which I have just now recited, told me also, that Dr. Rittenhouse gave him an account of a similar deluge which had taken place in the interiour of Pennsylvania; and which at the request of the American Philosophical Society he had personally examined. Mr. Edwards, afterwards, in a journey to the Northern parts of Vermont found evident traces of seven other instances, of the like kind; six of them, if I mistake not, upon different parts of the Green Mountain Range; the seventh, that in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Unfortunately, none of those, which have been known in New-England, have so far as I am informed, been seen in their progress. Their effects, are therefore, the only sources of our knowledge concerning them, and these go but a little way towards enabling us to conjecture the cause. As they have happened wholly, or chiefly, in the night, and in solitary regions; we are unfortunately destitute of the advantages for explaining this phenomenon, which might have been derived from general, and intelligent inspection.

So far as I have been able to learn, the inhabitants living in the vicinity of these deluges in New-England have adopted the same language with that of the people in Williamstown. To say that a cloud broke, or burst, is sufficiently unphilosophical; but is sufficiently expressive of the principal fact; viz. that a deluge of rain descended here in a moment. By what means such a mass of water was accumulated, and suspended, over this place, I am unable to divine. Chemistry has not yet shewn, that oxygen and hydrogen can be sufficiently accumulated, and by combustion be converted into water in such quantities, as, to form such a deluge in a moment. Nor has any scheme of evaporation taught us how such a mass of water can be collected over a small point, and retained by the atmosphere, so as to burst upon the earth in a del

uge of this magnitude. Even the torrid zone has not, I believe, been the scene of such instantaneous, and violent, devastations by rain.

The specimen of this nature, which took place at Manchester, is about thirty-four miles from Saddle Mountain, and nearly on the same meridian. The point, where the desolation commences, is within a very small distance from the apex. There is no space above, where the waters could possibly accumulate. The side of the mountain is almost perpendicular. Yet the waters at the place, where the ravage begins, must have existed in great quantities; for the earth was instantaneously worn to a considerable depth, and over a considerable surface; although less than that on Saddle Mountain. The waters must, therefore, have descended upon this spot in torrents, however inexplicable may be the process of their accumulation or suspension.

The Northernmost of the instances, observed by Mr. Edwards is on the mountain of Mansfield. In the year 1806, I was informed that there had been a second on Saddle Mountain, upon the Eastern side of the Southern summit. With its history I am unacquainted.

In Nichols's history, and antiquities, of the County of Leicester, in England, as quoted by the British Critic, Vol. 16, p. 349, there is an account of a very uncommon flood, which on May 12th, 1606, came rushing down the forest hills near Beaumanoir, and deluged the farm yards, and all the meadows, in an extraordinary manner. This, the reviewer observes, was probably produced by the discharge of a cloud, or what is called a water spout; of which, he says, a similar instance occurred within these few years at Broomsgrove in Worcestershire; when a deluge came pouring from the hills, which overflowed the town, and the adjacent vale, to a height truly astonishing.

A water spout, if I mistake not, is always formed on the surface of a piece of water in this manner. A whirlwind, passing over such a surface, produces by its gyrations a vacuum in its centre. Up this vacuum the water ascends by the pressure of the atmosphere. From this mass, a great quantity of vapours detached by