oe as 
288 Deerfield Disruption. 
and on the 3d of March, it had overflowed the ground where the 
above described phenomenon occurred, and did not recede from it 
for 24 hours. lis greatest depth there, was five feet. The 
snow was nearly one foot deep when the flood happened, and 
being: a nonconductor of heat, the temperature of the surface 
of the ground was not probably much changed from its state in 
February, until the water came in contact with it. It may not be 
~ amiss to give the state of the thermometer on the last of Februa- 
ry and beginning of March. 
th.A.M. 13h.P.M. 10h. P.M. Wind, weather, &e. 
Feb. 27th, 15° below 0. 28° above 0. 32° above 0. South, clear. 
do. do. 
> 3l above 45 31 
March Ist, 29 ——— 46 37 N. E. rain. 
BE 66. midiend AD imal. OR do. do: 
3d,,30 ———_ 35 20 do. rain & clear. 
On the third of March, about sunset, some lads were sailing 
near the spot where the disruption appears, and saw the water it 
considerable agitation, with much bubbling, and at short intervals 
it was thrown up in several places to the height of 3 or 4 feet. 
‘They saw no rupture in the earth, although they came within 
two or three rods of the spot, and state the water to have been 
two feet deep. About one o’clock in the morning of March 4th, 
Mr. Seth Sheldon and family, living one mile south from this spot, 
and being awake, were alarmed by a loud report from the north, 
by which their house and furniture were much shaken. They 
compared the sound, though louder by far than they had ever heard 
from this cause, to that of a cracking in the earth by frost in se- 
vere weather. Some others living rather nearer the spot, Wer? 
awakened by the same report. That the rupture in the earth 
‘was made at that time is probable, though not certain. 
It may be proper to state, that during the flood, no ice, excep ; 
a few loose masses, was carried over, or near the spot wher’ 
the disruption appears. This, therefore, could not_have prod 
ced it. : . 
Fig. 1. isa transverse section, taken with a theodolite, 
from 
Deerfield river 28 rods south, crossing the longer axis of the 
