376 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



There is another ridge, called the Chimney Ridge, about 

 the same length as this, though much higher and steeper, 

 about south east from Hollidaysburg. This ridge runs a 

 little north of east, and south of west. It has ten such 

 basins on its northern slope, a little higher up from its base 

 than the ridge first described. The one nearest the eastern 

 end, however, is not round, as the others generally are ; it 

 is ninety feet long from east to west, along the ridge, and 

 only twenty-one feet wide ; and it has an outlet at each 

 end, but none in the middle, and from these two outlets an 

 immense mass of earth and rocks was carried down into 

 the Juniata, which washes its base. The cut here was 

 nineteen feet deep on the upper side, and six feet on the 

 lower, of the middle space which was not washed out. 

 And as this middle space had the old dead dry leaves, and 

 other light materials lying on its surface undisturbed, it 

 seems certain that this cut could not have been made by a 

 mass of water of its own shape and size ; it was, therefore, 

 probably one spout of descending water, which wavered 

 about, until it dug out the earth in the shape mentioned, 

 discharging itself awhile at one end of the cut, and then at 

 the other. 



Above this cut there was no drain leading into it, and 

 the dead leaves of last year's growth, and chips of wood 

 which had been made by the axe, and other light materials, 

 were lying undisturbed, as if the descending water had not 

 even plashed up an inch above the perpendicular cut, nine- 

 teen feet deep. 



The very great steepness of Chimney Ridge prevented 

 me and Dr. Landis, who accompanied me in this examina- 

 tion, from going up to the several basins, along the side of 

 the hill about fifty or sixty feet, or thirty or forty yards, 

 measuring by the slope. But we measured the distances 

 between the gullies below, and found them vary from about 

 seventy to one hundred and twelve yards, with the excep- 

 tion of the most western one, which was quite small, and 



