130 HISTORY OF 



plain, which is now formed into several new and 

 deep lakes. There appeared, through the whole 

 of this rubbish, none of those substances that 

 seemed to indicate that this disruption had been 

 made by means of subterraneous fires. Most 

 probably the base of this rocky mountain was 

 rotted and decayed, and thus fell without any 

 extraneous violence." In the same manner, in 

 the year 1618, the town of Pleurs, in France, was 

 buried beneath a rocky mountain, at the foot of 

 which it was situated. 



These accidents, and many more that might be 

 enumerated of the same kind, have been produc- 

 ed by various causes ; by earthquakes, as in the 

 mountain at Cajeta ; or by being decayed at the 

 bottom, as at Diableret : But the most general 

 way is, by the foundation of one part of the 

 mountain being hollowed by waters, and thus, 

 wanting a support, breaking from the other. 

 Thus it generally has been found in the great 

 chasms in the Alps ; and thus it almost always is 

 known in those disruptions of hills, which are 

 known by the name of land-slips. These are 

 nothing more than the sliding down of a higher 

 piece of ground, disrooted from its situation by 

 subterraneous inundations, and settling itself upon 

 the plain. 



There is not an appearance in all nature that so 

 much astonished our ancestors, as these land-slips. 

 In fact, to behold a large upland, with its houses, 

 its corn, and cattle, at once loosened from its 

 place, and floating, as it were, upon the subjacent 

 water j to behold it quitting its ancient situation, 



