146 PHYSICAL SCIENCE BK. in 



title by the widespread destruction of the world 



8 which it carries as its burthen. The rivers, too, 

 originally large, have been so hurried down by the 

 storms that they have left their channels. The 

 Rhone, the Rhine, the Danube, even when confined 

 within their banks, have an impetuous torrent. 

 What, suppose you, are they now that they have 

 overflowed and made themselves new banks, and, 

 cutting through the soil have all wandered from 

 their wonted course ? With what headlong rush 

 they roll down ! The Rhine overspreads the plains, 

 but the wideness of the space causes no slackening 

 of its energy ; it pours its waters in full force over 

 the whole extent as if it were rushing through a 



9 gorge. The Danube no longer washes the base, or 

 even the middle, of the mountains ; it lashes the 

 very summits, bearing down with it the mountain 

 sides it has flooded, the crags it has overturned, 

 the beetling promontories through whole provinces ; 

 it undermines their foundations, and carries them far 

 off from the mainland. And, after all, the river finds 

 no exit for it had closed up every passage against 

 itself but returns in a circuit, and envelops in one 

 vast whirlpool the huge expanse of lands and cities. 



Meantime the rains continue, the sky becomes 

 still more threatening, and thus, for long, disaster 

 is heaped upon disaster. What was once cloud 



10 is now profound night, and that, too, dread and 

 terrible, with gleams of lurid light between. For 

 frequent flashes show, and squalls disturb the sea. 

 Then for the first time, feeling the increase from 

 the rivers, and too narrow to contain itself, the 

 main advances its shores. Its own bounds cannot 

 contain it, and yet the torrents from land prevent 

 its escape, and drive back its waves. Still, the 



