640 INCIDENTAL EFFECTS OF HUMAN ACTION. 
cargo of iron,* or from throwing the waste of an establishment 
for working metals into ranning water which might carry it to 
the sea. 
Parthey records a singular instance of unforeseen mischief 
from an interference with the arrangements of nature. A land- 
owner at Malta possessed a rocky plateau sloping gradually 
towards the sea, and terminating in a precipice forty or fifty 
feet high, through natural openings in which the sea-water 
flowed into a large cave under the rock. The proprietor at- 
tempted to establish salt-works on the surface, and cut shallow 
pools in the rock for the evaporation of the water. In order to 
fill the salt-pans more readily, he sank a well down to the cave 
beneath, through which he drew up water by a windlass and 
buckets. The speculation proved a failure, because the water 
filtered through the porous bottom of the pans, leaving little 
salt behind. But this was a small evil, compared with 
other destructive consequences that followed. When the 
sea was driven into the cave by violent west or north-west winds, 
it shot a jet @’eau through the well to the height of sixty feet, 
the spray of which was scattered far and wide over the neigh- 
boring gardens and blasted the crops. The well was now 
closed with stones, but the next winter’s storms hurled them 
out again, and spread the salt spray over the grounds in the 
vicinity as before. Repeated attempts were made to stop the 
orifice, but at the time of Parthey’s visit the sea had thrice 
burst through, and it was feared that the evil was without 
remedy.t 
I have mentioned the great extent of the heaps of oyster and 
other shells left by the American Indians on the Atlantic coast 
of the United States. Some of the Danish kitchen-middens, 
which closely resemble them, are a thousand feet long, from 
one hundred and fifty to two hundred wide, and from six to 
ten high. These piles have an importance as geological wit- 
nesses, independent of their bearing upon human history. 
* Kou, Schleswig-Holstein, ii., p. 45. 
+ Wanderungen durch Sicilien und die Levante, i., p. 406. 
