: Deerfield Disruption. 287 
near the highest part of the swell above described, and in its 
longest direction, or parallel to the river, the greatest effect of 
the convulsion appears. The earth, to the depth it has frozen 
the past winter, 14 inches, is broken on a straight line above 6 
rods, and the south edge of the fissure having been forced up, 
overlaps the other three feet. Where one edge does not- 
thus overreach, the tables of earth, which at a small distance re- 
semble masses of ice, are raised up so that their faces form an 
isosceles triangle, leaving a cavity beneath. Aboutthe extrem- 
ities of the transverse axis, is also an overlapping of two feet, 
which continues nearly two rods on the curve each way from the 
axis, and in most places is double, overreaching internally and 
externally, exhibiting likewise, some irregularity where the com- 
Pressing forces acted at right angles to each other. The edges 
of these elevated masses of earth, which are yet frozen, are 
quite smooth, and the angles but little fractured. I have dug in- 
to the earth about four feet underneath the longer axis of the 
ellipsis, and thrust down a bar in other places, but cannot perceive — 
that the soil has been moved below where it was frozen. It is, 
however, not the most favorable season for ascertaining this fact. 
Every appearance on the spot will justify this conclusion, that 
the frozen surface of the earth around, has pressed with great 
force from every direction to this ellipsis as a centre ; for, where 
every fissure in the ellipsis to be filled by replacing the earth, 
there must remain on its longer axis and at the extremities of 
this, a overplus of surface two feet wide. 
The month of February last was unusually cold. Its mean 
temperature in Deerfield, by Fahrenheit’s scales, is as follows. 
Th. a. M. 1kh. P.M. 10h. P. M. 
o Q4° |B ee 
The extremes were 25° below, and 49° above zero. On 
the last day but one of the month, the cold suddenly relaxed 
andon the 1st and 2nd of March, a heavy and warm rain suc- 
ceeded. 'This produced an uncommon rise in Deerfield river, 
