26 On Natural Phenomenon 



state, its interstices are found filled with this hard and tenacious 

 clay. Another circumstance might be mentioned in confirma* 

 tion of the former conclusion that the whole of this clay had 

 been suspended in a torrent of turbid water. It was found, 

 that in lateral cavities (which would have escaped the general 

 rush and pressure of such a torrent) the clay did not complete- 

 ly fill the whole of such cavities, and was taken out in a loose 

 granulated state. There is one circumstance, which seems to 

 imply a very long continued action of water, or more properly 

 speaking the same action renewed after long intervals. The 

 rounded stones above described, " one or two of them as large 

 as a man's head, 1 ' must have been brought there by a torrent 

 of water ; but it is impossible that they could have remained 

 in the place which they were found to occupy, only twelve feet 

 from the surface, unless the turbid water had, at the time when 

 they were brought there, already deposited a mass of mud 

 firm enough to afford them support, and to prevent them from 

 being borne by their own weight to the bottom of the cavity. 



I now come to a circumstance which, except to an actual 

 spectator, might make the statement and inferences above men- 

 tioned appear wholly fallacious and incredible. Accordingly, 

 even to an actual spectator, it has usually been the last which 

 I have pointed out. I have said : " You see immediately be- 

 neath your^feet the straight furrows stretching downwards ; you 

 see the horizontal furrows on the side opposite ; in neither of 

 them are there any salient parts ; but every angle either in a 

 downward or horizontal direction is worn and rounded off: 

 you see further down little niches and cavities worn out by the 

 rebound of the water, and becoming gradually deeper and more 

 marked, as you descend to those parts where the rocky fun- 

 nel is more straitened, and where the resistance and reaction 

 must have been greatest : In short, all the undoubted traces of 

 a rush of water pouring down the cavity from the side on which 

 we are standing. Now, let us turn round, and look for the 

 higher or equal level from which this rush of water must have 

 proceeded. It has ceased to exist ; you can see nothing behind 

 you, but a declivity leading down to a branch of the present 

 harbour."" 



This, therefore, is one of the local enigmas which are of fre- 



