Eruption of Long Lake and Mud Lake, in. Vermont. 147 



the gazettes of the latter. The village is well built, and every 

 thing indicated good order and general prosperity. 



Precisely at 4 a. m. of Wednesday, I sat down with one of 

 my companions, to an excellent breakfast, which was rendered 

 more hearty from the reflection that we might fare worse before 

 the day was over ; and at five we were all on our horses. We 

 rode eastward, through a country chiefly forested, twelve or 

 fifteen miles, to a scattered hamlet in the north part of Glover, 

 called Keene-Corner, and settled by emigrants from Keene, in 

 New Hampshire. As we began to descend from the high 

 grounds towards the hamlet, we first saw the valley of Barton 

 river ; originally resembling the valleys of other streamlets of a 

 similar size, but, at the time of the efflux of the lake, excavated 

 into a broad, deep channel, with perpendicular banks ; in the 

 bottom of which the stream had worked out for itself a some- 

 what deeper bed. This river, which is here too small for a mill- 

 stream, issues from Mud Lake, fbUr miles south from Keene- 

 Corner; and, after running northward from this hamlet about 

 seven miles to the village of Barton, turns somewhat to the 

 north-west, flows about fifteen miles, and is discharged into 

 Lake Mem ph rem agog. I was most agreeably surprized, as I 

 descended the hills which overlook the valley of the river, to find 

 the ravages made by the flood so distinctly visible, after the lapse 

 of thirteen years. Our first view of the desolation presented a 

 gulley, or excavation in the earth, extending up and down the 

 river as far as its course was visible, and varying in breadth 

 from twenty to forty rods, and in depth from twenty to forty 

 feet. This immense channel, except what had been previously 

 worn away by the gradual attrition of the streamlet, had all 

 been hollowed out at once by the violence of the torrent. Its 

 sides were precipices of earth or sand, every where indicating the 

 avulsion of the mass which had been adjacent, and exhibiting in 

 frequent succession, large rocks laid bare, and often jutting out 

 into the guUey ; and, near the top, the uncovered roots of trees, 

 which, having been partially undermined by the water, still nod- 

 ded over the precipice. The bottom of this channel, as far as 

 we could see, was covered with larger and smaller rocks and 

 stones, and in some places with extensive deposits of sand. The 

 sight of this vast excavation only heightened our conceptions of 

 the effects of the flood, and satisfied us that, in our visit to the 



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