Deerfield Disruption. 291 
the following manner. ‘The water contained in the ground, (that 
is, in that part which is within the reach of a freezing temper- 
ature,) by congealing, expands and demands more space ; amove- 
ment must necessarily take place in the direction where there is 
the least resistance; this will evidently be upward, because the 
atmosphere, the only counteracting power in this direction, can- 
not resist the expansion of the freezing water as much as it is re- 
sisted by the earth below the freezing stratum. Consequently, 
the freezing earth is forced upward, but being of unequal strength 
in different places, it cracks at the weakest spot ; and the earth, 
for some distance on the sides of the fissure, is thrown into the 
position of two planes gently inclined, their relative position re- 
sembling that of a very flat roof, and the more they are lifted 
by frost, the more they will decline from one another, and the 
wider will be the fissure. 
- But why, in the instance which Mr. Hitchcock has related, 
did they overlap? The explanation appears to result from the 
circumstances of the case, as far as they can be understood with- 
out inspection of the ground. 
The elevated spot which cracked in-so remarkable a manner, 
being nearly surrounded by a belt of low wet ground, the con- 
gelation of the water in this ground by the intense cold, would 
of course produce avery great expansive effort towards the 
elevated ground. This, not only on account of its elevation, 
but from its containing less water, would not be able to exert 
an equal counteracting effort. The surface of the ground, there- 
fore, (without at all disturbing the unfrozen earth below,) was, by 
the expansive effort of the freezing water, pushed along towards 
the elevated spot. This spot being possessed of a certain pow- 
er of resistance derived from its gravity, and from the freezing 
of the water in it, would not immediately give way; but the 
whole surface, it is probable, gradually rose for some time, while 
the expansion was going on andincreasing. A cavity would thus 
be produced between that superficial layer of frozen ground 
Which was rising, and the unfrozen ground below. This cavity 
Would of course be filled with air derived from the atmosphere, 
and from the porousness of the ground below. When the place 
came to be overflowed, water would immediately rush in through 
