134 HISTORY OF 



the earthy substances with which they might have 

 been once covered, have for ages been washed 

 away from their summits ; and nothing is left re- 

 maining, but immense rocks, which no tempest 

 has hitherto been able to destroy. 



Nevertheless, time is every day, and every 

 hour, making depredations ; and huge fragments 

 are seen tumbling down the precipice, either 

 loosened from the summit by frost or rains, or 

 struck down by lightning. Nothing can exhibit 

 a more terrible picture than one of these enor- 

 mous rocks, commonly larger than a house, fall- 

 ing from its height, with a noise louder than 

 thunder, and rolling down the side of the moun- 

 tain. Dr Plot tells us of one in particular, which 

 being loosened from its bed, tumbled down the 

 precipice, and was partly shattered into a thou- 

 sand pieces. Notwithstanding, one of the largest 

 fragments of the same, still preserving its motion, 

 travelled over the plain below, crossed a rivulet 

 in the midst, and at last stopped on the other 

 side of the bank ! These fragments, as was said, 

 are often struck off by lightning, and sometimes 

 undermined by rains ; but the most usual manner 

 in which they are disunited from the mountain, is 

 by frost : the rains insinuating between the inter- 

 stices of the mountain, continue there until there 

 comes a frost, and then, when converted into ice, 

 the water swells with an irresistible force, and 

 produces the same effect as gunpowder, splitting 

 the most solid rocks, and thus shattering the 

 summits of the mountain. 



