S08 Contributions to Physical Geography/. 



The two Crawfords were the nearest neighbours of Willey^^' 

 Two days had now elapsed since the storm, and nothing had 

 been heard of his family in either direction. There was no 

 longer any room to doubt that they had been alarmed by the 

 noise of the destruction around them, had sprung from their 

 beds, and fled naked from the house, and in the utter dark- 

 ness had been soon overtaken by the falling mountains and 

 rushing torrents. The family, which is said to have been 

 amiable and respectable, consisted of nine persons, Mr Willey 

 and his wife and five young children of theirs, with a hired 

 man and boy. After the fall of a single slide last June, they 

 were more ready to take the alarm, though they did not con- 

 sider their situation dangerous, as none had ever been known 

 to fall there previous to this. Whether more rain fell now 

 than had ever been known to fall before in the same length of 

 time, at least since the sides of the mountains were covered 

 with so heavy a growth of woods, or whether the slides were 

 produced by the falling of such a quantity of rain so sudden- 

 ly, after the earth had been rendered light and loose by the 

 long drought, I am utterly unable to say. All I know is, 

 that at the close of a rainy day, the clouds seemed all to come 

 together over the White Mountains, and at midnight discharge 

 their contents at once in a terrible burst of rain, which pro- 

 duced the effects that have now been described." 



The following is a notice of the same event by M. T, Bald- 

 win, who saw the spot in May 1828, and who has stated some 

 particulars of great interest. 



" In its whole course before reaching Mill Brook, it swept 

 through a dense forest, mostly of hemlock and spruce, and 

 took off" the entire surface, and every thing which it contain- 

 ed. The ground appeared to be as free from roots as if it 

 had been tilled for fifty years. We observed some trees so 

 firmly rooted in the rocks, that they could not be drawn out, 

 which were pounded off* upon a level with the surface of the 

 ground, as if they had been but slender reeds. At some dis- 

 tance above the stream the mass parted, and left a few rods 

 square of timber standing — but soon united again — and rush- 

 ing on in all its tremendous power, struck obliquely against 

 the opposite bank of Mill Brook, with a concussion that must 



