238 William Brown, Esq., on the Flood at Frastanz, 



actions. We must infer from this preservation of the supe- 

 rior phenomena, that in many cases the revolutions of the 

 surface of our globe have been greatly exaggerated, since 

 such frail monuments of subterranean actions on the surface 

 have reached our day in a state of preservation often com- 

 plete. The superficial metalliferous repositories are there- 

 fore new proofs to be added to those which M. Elie de Beau- 

 mont has brought forward respecting the conservation of 

 continental surfaces. — {Annates des Mines, t. xiii., p. 235.) 



Notice of a Flood at Frastanz, in the Vorarlberg, in the Autumn 

 of 1846. By William Brown, Esq. Communicated by 

 the Author. 



The action of running water, — in dissolving and rubbing 

 down the solid parts of the earth's surface, — in transporting 

 these from one place to another, — and in finally depositing 

 them in the bed of the ocean, or in some other level lower 

 than their original site, is known to all. We are ready, 

 however, to overlook the extent to which this process is going 

 on, and the rapidity with which it is altering the relative 

 levels of sea and land. Rapidity appears an unsuitable word, 

 when we compare merely the events of individual years, or 

 of a single lifetime ; but when we add up the results of many 

 years, and compare the observations of a succession of obser- 

 vers, it is in no respect improper. 



A large river becomes swollen, or a mountain-burn is " in 

 Bpeat." It is no longer the bright transparent stream which 

 it previously was ; but with its increased volume, it has also 

 become " drumly," that is, it has washed down from its up- 

 per banks a quantity of the soil, which it holds in suspension, 

 w^hile it flows rapidly on. As the motion becomes slower, 

 however, it gradually deposits the coarser part, and carries 

 to the sea or other resting-place, only the finer and lighter 

 particles. This process is repeated to a greater or less ex- 

 tent after every heavy shower of rain, but more evidently in 

 spring, at the melting of the mountain snows, and in the 



