186 DB DOUGLAS ON THE CESSATION OF THE 



of the present. In January 1748, March 1785, and January 1787, the 

 same phenomena were observed in the TeAdot ; and on the two former 

 of these occasions, the drying up took place near the mouth of the river. 

 The following extract from the Grentleman's Magazine, for March 1748, 

 will be read with interest. 



"Letter from a gentleman in Scotland, February 29th. — Mr Urban, 

 we have had- some extraordinary events in our neighbourhood, which 

 can't as yet be accounted for. On January 25th the river Teviot, for 

 two miles before it joins the Tweed, stopped its current, and its channel 

 became dr}', leaving fishes, &c. on dry ground, many of which were 

 taken up by the country people, and sold at Longtown, and other places. 

 It continued in this condition for nine hours, and when it began to 

 resume its course, it began gradually until it ran as usual again, but 

 in no greater quantity from its stopping as might be expected. How 

 to account for the phenomena we know not, for there are no mines of 

 any sort, nor any cavities in the whole country ; and, if the waters had 

 been stopped by any rising of that part of the ground, by an earth- 

 quake, they would have been heaped up in such quantities in a minute's 

 time, that upon the ground's descending, the whole country must have 

 been overflowed. 



On February 19. the river Kirtle was dry for six hours. 



On February 23. the river Esk stopped its course, and the channel 

 was quite dry for the space of five hours, to the admiration of the whole 

 country." 



But similar phenomena have occurred in much more recent times. 

 A gentleman informed me that during the winter 1803 — 4, the river 

 Teviot was dry; and on Eastern's evening 1824, I was assured by the 

 miller at Roxburgh that the river was even drier than on the 27th of 

 November. The previoiis night's frost having been intense, about 

 eleven in the forenoon when the sun got out, the river began to flow 

 as usual. On the 27th November the Tweed was scarcely perceptibly 

 smaller than usual. An enormous quantity of grew floated down during 

 the whole of the day. On the 28th of January last, after a frost of 

 considerable intensity, another stoppage occurred in the Teviot, but 

 not to the same extent as on the 27th of November. 



A few observations will now be necessary to attempt an explanation 

 of the above phenomena. 



Running water is always in the lowest ground in the district, and 

 its tendency is uniformly to cut into the earth as deep as its level will 

 permit. From this it may be inferred, that it will frequently interfere 

 with the course of springs, or in other words, that many springs must 

 have their vent on the very verge, or in the bed of the stream.* In severe 

 drought or in sharp frost, the open springs at any distance from thelowest 

 level never reach it, and the supply of the stream is altogether kept up by 

 the water rising within its own bed. In a lake, where there is no outlet, 



* The epringa being universally directed towards the latter. 



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