420 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



one moment, to produce so great a change in nature's works a change which, though 

 wrought by a single hand, was, in itself, and in its consequences, so vast and un 

 controllable, that, if thousands of men had been on the spot, they could not have turned 

 th.at river back again. On swept its devouring columns, with the low hissing sound of a 

 serpent, but with the force and swiftness of an eagle sweeping to its prey." The view 

 of the trench at the time it was opened, and twenty-four hours afterwards, was most 

 striking. The banks, being undermined, rapidly gave way, falling in huge masses 

 at a time, and ultimately the Dornack reduced its new course to an inclined plane, 

 extending a considerable way back from the opening, with a channel sufficient in width 

 to accommodate a much larger river. The Rhymer's Hill, for whose preservation this 

 turn was given to the Dornack, is connected with a tradition respecting the extinction of 

 the last wolves from the district, and was therefore a spot of some interest in the neigh 

 bourhood. Two brothers having watched the parent animals from their den, one stationed 

 himself at the entrance to give the alarm in case they returned, while the other went in 

 to destroy the cubs. Before this was accomplished the wolves came back, when the 

 sentinel fled without giving any signal, under the influence of a sudden panic. Ashamed 

 of his cowardice, and not doubting the fate of his brother, he gave out that he had been 

 killed in the den, and wounded himself in several places to make it appear that he himself 

 had with difficulty escaped. But after a severe contest with the enraged animals the 

 brother succeeded in despatching them ; and upon the discovery of the treachery and 

 deceit of the other, the laird adjudged him to be hanged on the Rhymer's Hill. 



A sudden and extensive landslip occurred in the year 1826, in the White Mountains, 

 the name of that part of the Alleghanies, which lies in New Hampshire, one of the United 

 States, so called from the greyish white colour of the bare rocks at their summits. Here 

 there is a pass, or notch, according to the language of the district, about six miles in 

 length. The mountains on each side rise from 1800 to 2000 feet, at an angle of about 

 45, and form a valley less than half a mile in width, along which a roaring streamlet, the 

 Saco, takes its course. At the period in question, a farmer of the name of Willey, with 

 his wife, five children, and two labourers, occupied a small farm at the upper end of the 

 valley, hospitably entertaining the benighted travellers who sought the shelter of their 

 roof. It was the only house in the notch, and their nearest neighbours were six miles 

 distant. At that time, the hills were mantled with large forest-trees and shrubs, so that 

 no disturbance of their site could have happened for ages, nor had anything occurred to 

 render the family doubtful as to the perfect safety of their position. But in the month 

 of June, a small slide of earth took place from the top of the surrounding hills, which so 

 alarmed the dwellers below by the devastation it made, as to induce them to retreat half 

 a mile down the Saco, erecting a temporary camp upon an apparently safer spot. After 

 two unusually dry seasons, in the beginning of July, the clouds collected about the 

 summits of the mountains, and commenced the discharge of a deluge of rain, while the 

 wind blew a hurricane, which continued with unabated violence for several days. On the 

 night of the 26th, the tempest raged with tremendous fury, accompanied with loud 

 thunder and vivid lightning. The valley was inaccessible, owing to the great swelling of 

 the Saco; but when a peasant entered it by swimming his horse across an eddy, the 

 terrible spectacle presented itself, of the entire face of the hills having descended in one 

 confused mass into the valley. The Willeys' house appeared upon its old site uninjured 

 in the midst of the vast chaos. But the home was desolate. The lifeless bodies of its 

 former inmates, after some days' search, were found buried beneath a mass of wood and 

 rubbish, not far from their own door. It seems, that, after retiring to rest, they had been 

 alarmed by the noise of the descending materials, and flying out of their dwelling, they 

 had been swept away by the torrent of earth, stones, trees, and water that came rushing 



