186 DR DOUGLAS ON THE CESSATION OF THE 



The drying up and cessation of the current of rivers, is not a new occur- 

 rence in the south of Scotland. The same thing has been frequently ob- 

 served and recorded during the last century, and has happened, I find 

 from inquiry, several times since the commencement of the present. In 

 January 1748, March 1785, and January 1787, the same phenomena 

 were observed in the Teviot ; and on the two former of these occasions, 

 the drying up took place near the mouth of the river. The following 

 extract from the Gentleman's Magazine, for March 1748, will be read 

 with interest. 



" Letter from a gentleman in Scotland, February 29th. Mr Urban, 

 we have had some extraordinary events in our neighbourhood, which 

 can't as yet be accounted for. On January 25th the river Teviot, for two 

 miles before it joins the Tweed, stopped its current, and its channel be- 

 came dry, leaving fishes, &c. on dry ground, many of which were taken 

 up by the country people, and sold at Longtown, and other places. It 

 continued in this condition for nine hours, and when it began to resume 

 its course, it began gradually until it ran as usual again, but in no greater 

 quantity from its stopping as might be expected. How to account for 

 the phenomena we know not, for there are no mines of any sort, nor any 

 cavities in the whole country ; and, if the waters had been stopped by 

 any rising of that part of the ground, by an earthquake, they would have 

 been heaped up in such quantities in a minute's time, that upon theground's 

 descending, the whole country must have been overflowed. 



On February 19. the river Kirtle was dry for six hours. 



On February 23. the river Esk stopped its course, and the channel 

 was quite dry for the space of five hours, to the admiration of the whole 

 country." 



But similar phenomena have occurred in much more recent times. A 

 gentleman informed me that during the winter 1803-4, the river Teviot 

 was dry ; and on Fastern's evening 1824, 1 was assured by the miller at 

 Roxburgh that the river was even drier than on the 27th of November. 

 The previous night's frost having been intense, about eleven in the fore- 

 noon when the sun got out, the river began to flow as usual. On the 

 27th November the Tweed was scarcely perceptibly smaller than usual. 

 An enormous quantity of grew floated down during the whole of the day. 

 On the 28th of January last, after a frost of considerable intensity, ano- 

 ther stoppage occurred in the Teviot, but not to the same extent as on 

 the 27th of November. 



A few observations will now be necessary to attempt an explanation 

 of the above phenomena. 



Running water is always in the lowest ground in the district, and its 

 tendency is uniformly to cut into the earth as deep as its level will per- 

 mit. From this it may be inferred, that it will frequently interfere with 

 the course of springs, or in other words, that many springs must have 



