290 Deerfield Disruption. 
_ It may be proper to observe, that in neither of these disrup- 
tions. has the general mass of the hills sunk in the least. Had 
this, been the case, it might perhaps have accounted. for them. 
It is also certain, that the soil below where it was frozen. the 
past winter, has not been moved. I mentioned this fact in my 
communication, though with some suggested doubt. 
_ An opinion having been requested by Mr. Hitchcock on the 
above facts, it may be observed, that there appears in the state- 
ment sufficient evidence that the phenomenon (as the author 
has suggested) is attributable to frost. 
It is. afact, established equally by common experience and 
by numerous experiments, that water, in freezing, expands, 
It is.generally estimated that 8 cubic inches of water, become 
9, by the act of congealing. The expansion is attributed, with 
sufficient evidence, to a crystalline arrangement arising from a 
kind of polarity inthe particles of water exerted when they are 
near congealing, by which they attract one another in certain 
points and not in others. Dr. Black, with his usual felicity, 
has illustrated this tendency, by supposing a great number of 
etized needles, thrust through corks, so that they will 
float parallel to the surface of water, to be thrown promiscu- 
ously into a vessel of that fluid. They will not remain in the 
situation in which they are thrown in, but, in consequence of 
their polarity, attractions and repulsions will be immediately €*- 
erted; they will rush together, with a force equal to the oyer> 
coming of a certain resistance ; they will arrange themselves 
in pairs and groups, and finally, in a connected assemblage- 
. The particles. of water attract each other, witha prodigious 
force, when, resistance is opposed; for it is well knowa that 
domestic utensils; trees, rocks, and .evem cannon, and bomb- 
psa pias with ee when water confined within 
There is force enough then exerted by.. the expansion of 
freezing water, to. produce all the mechanical violence, whose 
effects were so striking in the instance at Deerfield. 
. In the common cracking. of the ground by frost, 5° exten: 
sively observed in cold climates, the effect appears to result in 
