E.xcur0i0n. 251 



yellow or purple peaks change their hue with every hour of 

 the day, or variation of the sky. The bare, hot-looking 

 debris on the Mellbreak side, the chasms in the rocks, and 

 the sudden swellings of the waters, tell of turbulence in all 

 seasons. The most tremendous water-spout remembered 

 in the region of the lakes, descended the ravine between 

 Grassmoorand Whiteless, in 1760. It swept the whole side 

 of Grassmoor at midnight, and carried everything that was 

 lying loose all through the vale below, and over a piece of 

 land at the entrance, where it actually peeled the whole 

 surface, carrying away the soil and the trees, and leaving 

 the rocky substratum completely bare. The soil was many 

 feet deep, and the trees full-grown. Then it laid down what 

 it brought, covering ten acres with the rubbish. By the 

 channel left, it appears that the flood must have been five 

 or six yards deep, and a hundred yards wide. Among other 

 feats, it rooted up a solid causeway, which was supported 

 by an embankment apparently as strong as the neighbouring 

 hills. The flood not only swept away the whole work, but 

 scooped out the entire line for its own channel. The village 

 of Brackenthwaite, which stood directly in its course, was 

 saved by being built on a stone platform, — a circumstance 

 unknown to the inhabitants till they saw themselves left safe 

 upon a promontory, while the soft soil was swept away from 

 beside their very doors, leaving the chasm where the flood 

 had been turned aside by the resistance of their rock. The 

 end of the matter was, that the flood poured into the Cocker, 

 which rose so as to lay the whole south-western plain under 

 water for a considerable time. 



Mellbreak fills up the opposite shore, with its isolated 

 bulk ; and Red Pike discloses its crater ; both being streaked 

 with red and lead-coloured screes, and tracks of bright ver- 

 dure and brighter moss. On the side where the road is, 



