276 Mr D. Milne on the Slip and BreaMng up 



three o^clock in the afternoon, this immense mass separated from 

 Its basis. The greatest part was impelled forward about 150 

 feet, and the whole hill was rent and broken asunder into a 

 thousand pieces. Not a vestige remains of the former arrange- 

 ment of the strata, and the channel of the river has been entire- 

 ly choked with the aggregated ruins. 



From the account which I have given of the situation of 

 this hill or ridge, it is easy to discover the cause of the 

 slip. During the dry and warm months of the early part of 

 summer, large fissures had been formed in the clay and 

 marly soil of which it is composed. During the late rain, 

 which fell in such abundance throughout every part of the 

 country, these cracks or fissures were, of course, suddenly fill- 

 ed with water ; and all who are aware of the immense force 

 with which a column of water acts, where it is of any consider- 

 able height, will understand how it may have contributed to 

 loosen the friable texture of the strata. But the chief cause of 

 this extraordinary slip I conceive to have been the rivulet al- 

 ready mentioned, which skirts the north side of the ridge, and 

 by which, in fact, the ridge has in the course of time been form- 

 ed. When this stream became swollen into a rapid torrent by 

 the rains, and overflowed its narrow channel, the dry state of 

 the soil allowed the water to percolate down freely through the 

 marl strata, dipping towards the Whitadder ; and thus, both by 

 means of its physical force, and by rendering slippery the sur- 

 face of the marl rock on which the ridge rested, it caused the 

 superincumbent mass to slide down the declivity. The conse- 

 quences of the operation of this very simple agent were incon- 

 ceivably tremendous. An entire hill, consisting of solid strata, 

 propelled forward from its basis, and severed into fragments, 

 must have formed a spectacle of the most appalling grandeur. 

 The noise of the crash must have been very considerable ; as a 

 young woman, working in the garden of the mill on the oppo- 

 site side of the river, was so terrified that she sought her safety 

 in flight, and attracted the neighbours to the spot by her screams. 

 About eighteen months ago a small slip took place also upon 

 this side of the river, very near the spot I am now describing, 

 and arising from the same cause. And I may remark, that, from 

 the peculiar nature and position of the strata composing the 



