Eruption of Long Lake and Mud Lake, in Vermont. 157 



way from Barton to Lake Memphremagog ; and that large 

 quantities of forest trees were strewed over the surface of the 

 lake. The hard tough mud in the bottom of Mud Lake, was 

 all forced out and carried away, and was seen scattered in small- 

 er and larger masses — some, of the size of haycocks — for a 

 great distance along the progress of the torrent, and over the 

 adjoining fields. 



Several of the workmen informed me that when the northern 

 barrier of Long Lake gave way, and while the waters rushed 

 down the declivity into Mud Lake, the convulsion shook the 

 earth like a mighty earthquake ; and that the noise was louder 

 than the loudest thunder, and was heard for many miles around. 

 One of them, whose house was more than five miles from the 

 spot, told me that the noise there was so loud that the cattle 

 came running home, with the most obvious marks of terror and 

 alarm ; and that his family supposed, until his return, that there 

 had been a tremendous earthquake, accompanied with loud 

 thunder. The noise and agitation were also very great, while 

 the torrent made its way downward, from Mud Lake to Keene 

 Corner, and, even during its progress in the more level region, 

 greatly alarmed all the surrounding country. 



The waters of Long Lake were undoubtedly calcareous. I 

 saw on the bottom many siliceous rocks ; but the fissures of 

 these rocks were frequently filled with deposits of limestone. 

 There were numerous masses or rocks of limestone, of a bluish 

 black colour, occasionally imbedding pebbles of a different co- 

 lour and genus. Some of these masses were exceedingly hard 

 and firm, others were only brittle, while others were friable, and 

 others still were heaps of bluish black limestone dust, — the 

 embryos of rocks which had not yet received the cohesion ne- 

 cessary to bind them into solid masses, when the matrix in 

 which theygwere forming was dissolved. Probably the black 

 sponge mud of Long Lake was chiefly of this character ; as this 

 very substance, when wet, has a similar appearance. In various 

 places on the bottom of the lake, are deposits of a friable white 

 substance, which is almost pure carbonate of lime. This sub- 

 stance, as we shall have reason to see, was much more abundant 

 before the emptying of the lake. Had a skilful mineralogist 



