METEORIC RIVERS OR WATERFALLS. 379 



Besides, the quantity of water which ran down the hill 

 from these basins, in no case lodged the mud and leaves on 

 the trees which were left standing in its path, more than 

 three feet high, which would have been the case if the di- 

 ameter of the falling columns had been as large as the di- 

 ameter of the basins. 



The immense quantity of water descending in one of 

 these meteoric columns will be readily imagined when we 

 consider that if they fell from a height of only four hundred 

 feet, the water which fell in one second would be sufficient 

 to cover a space twenty-four times the area of the transverse 

 section of the columns ten feet deep, for the velocity of the 

 water at the moment of reaching the earth would be nearly 

 two hundred feet per second. If a column of only one 

 square yard area should fall thus for even one minute, it 

 would discharge water enough to cover an acre arid a half 

 of ground one foot deep. 



It is impossible, at present, to tell from what height these 

 columns fell after they were formed; but their velocity, 

 when they reached the earth, was very .great, as will more 

 clearly appear from the following phenomenon. 



Immediately after I arrived at Hollidaysburg, I went to 

 an eminence and looked round on all the neighboring hills, 

 and I discovered to the north west, near the top of Lehigh 

 Ridge, in the midst of a very dense foliage, a naked space, 

 to which I called the attention of several of the citizens who 

 were with me. They all assured me that there was no 

 field there, as the side of the ridge was quite too steep to 

 be ploughed. 



I determined to take the earliest opportunity to visit this 

 spot, in hopes of finding something which might throw some 

 light on the subject of my investigation. Accordingly, after I 

 had examined the ridges mentioned above, the next day I 

 took a horse, and, in company with a citizen of Hollidaysburg, 

 who kindly offered to conduct me, rode to the foot of the 



