302 Contributions to Physical Geogi-apJiy. 



apparel still sticking amonjy the splinters of the shattered trees. 

 Had the family remained in the house they would have been 

 entirely safe. Even the little green in front and east of the 

 house was undisturbed, and a flock of sheep, (a part of the 

 possession of the family,) remained on this small spot of 

 ground, and were found there the next morning in safety — 

 although the torrent dividing just above the house, and form- 

 ing a curve on both sides, had swept completely around them, 

 and again united below, and covered the meadows and or- 

 chards with ruius, which remain there to this hour. This 

 catastrophe presents a very striking example of sudden di- 

 luvial action, and enables one to form some feeble conception 

 of the universal effects of the vindictive deluge which once 

 swept every mountain, and ravaged every plain and defile. — 

 In the present instance, there was not one avalanche only, but 

 many. The most extensive single one was on the other side 

 of the barrier which forms the northern boundary of the notch. 

 It was described to us by Mr Abbot of Conway, as having 

 slid, in the whole, three miles — with an average breadth of a 

 quarter of a mile ; it overwhelmed a bridge, and filled a river 

 course, turning the stream, and now presents an unparalleled 

 mass of ruins. There are places on the declivities of the 

 mountains in the notch, where acres of the steep sides were 

 swept bare of their forests, and of every moveable thing, and 

 the naked rock is now exposed to view. 



In the greater number of instances, however, the avalanches 

 commenced almost at the mountain top, or high upon its slope. 

 We pursued some of them to a considerable distance up the 

 mountain, and two gentlemen of our party with much toil follow- 

 ed one of them quite to the summit. The excavation commen- 

 cing, generally, as soon as there was any thing moveable — ^in a 

 trench of a few yards in depth, and of a few rods in vvidth, de- 

 scends down the mountains — widening and deepening — till it 

 becomes a frightful chasm, like a vast irregular hollow cone^ 

 with its apex near the mountain top, and its base at its foot, 

 and there spreading out into a wide and deep mass of ruins 

 of transported earth, gravel stones, rocks, and forest trees.^^i 



At the time when this extraordinary accident happened, the 

 Rev. C. Wilcox was on an excursion to the White Mountains, 



