212 The Rev. A. Weld on a remarkable Flood 



It now remains to describe the scene to which my attention 

 was principally directed, and which alone suffices to distinguish 

 this flood from all others that I have ever witnessed, or which 

 have ever been known in this part of the country. 



The eastern side of Parlick, which rises to the height of about 

 1400 feet above the sea, presents an exceedingly steep ascent 

 richly clothed with fern. On this face of the hill seven huge 

 scars have been hollowed out by the water, varying from five to 

 fifteen yards in width, all cut abruptly from the face of the hill ; 

 and with the exception of two of the most southern, which are 

 somewhat lower, all commencing nearly in the same horizontal 

 line. There is in no case any appearance of a water-course open- 

 ing into them, but in every instance the upper limit is fonned 

 by a definite line, like the edge of a cliff. The depth to which 

 the ground has been carried away varies from one or two to 

 five .or six feet. Between these slips the fern is still green 

 and flourishing, and I am quite sure that no great body of water 

 can have passed over it. A little above one of the slips whose 

 upper limit is lower than the others, the fern is beaten down, 

 and appears to have been washed by a torrent ; but there is no 

 channel opening into the hollow produced by the slip, the com- 

 mencement of which is no less abrupt than the rest. Hence it 

 appears that several distinct discharges of water must have taken 

 place, of such tremendous violence as to be able to carry away 

 hundreds of tons of earth and stones, whilst the land between, in 

 narrow strips often or twelve yards in width, remained untouched. 



The volume of water which flowed down the seven channels 

 must have been enormous, since the stones and earth are spread 

 over acres of land below. In some places the stones are thrown 

 up at the edges of the stream into a sort of mound, one or two 

 feet in height, by the force of the torrent. Towards the bottom 

 of the steep declivity the several streams seem to have united 

 and formed one great river about 150 yards in breadth. This 

 must have been in some parts at least five feet in depth, as ap- 

 pears from the remnants of a wall which ran nearly parallel to 

 the course of the water. The greater part of this wall is thrown 

 down; but the portions of it that remain, about five feet in 

 height, are still covered with mud, showing that they were buried 

 beneath the torrent. Along the foundations of the wall, a chan- 

 nel four feet deep was hollowed out where previously no water- 

 course had existed. This great stream had to make its way 

 across the land, working out for itself a deep and broad bed, till 

 it mingled with the waters of the main brook coming from Green- 

 lough and Whitestone Cloughs. 



The devastation which the passage of so great a body of water 

 must have produced will easily be understood. In one or two 

 places where I measured the channel, I found its area to be 



