METEORIC RIVERS OR WATERFALLS. 395 



wholly or in part buried in the sand and rocks. But the 

 principal part of the timber swept from these twenty-five 

 acres, lies piled in a confused heap, covering perhaps an 

 acre of ground, and four hundred and eighty rods (one and 

 a half miles) from the spot where the slide commenced ! 

 Here having already spent much of its force, and the moun- 

 tain growing less precipitous, it struck into a cluster of 

 firmly-rooted trees, and was compelled to stop. At this 

 place it presents a perpendicular wall of logs, &c., across 

 the entire channel, in some places ten or fifteen feet high. 

 The upper end of the pile is buried beneath the sand and 

 stones, and the stream now runs over the top. Perhaps 

 those very logs will be dug out in after times as fossil wood. 

 Every thing in this mass bears the marks of the greatest 

 violence. Almost every tree is as completely divested of 

 its roots, branches, and bark, as could have been effected 

 by man with the proper instruments. They are pounded 

 and splintered, and broken into all imaginable shapes and 

 lengths. We felt ourselves amply repaid for our labor. It 

 is well worth the attention of the lovers of the marvellous, 

 and especially of every one who has never witnessed such 

 tremendous effects accomplished by the agency of water. 

 I shall never more doubt that water is adequate to the pro- 

 duction of any of those effects which are generally ascribed 

 to the delude. But I must confess, sir, that while attending 

 your lectures upon this interesting subject, I always had a 

 kind of incredulity with regard to this point, which went 

 very far to weaken the force of conclusions fairly deduced 

 from physical phenomena, of whose actual existence I could 

 not entertain a doubt, And while standing upon that 

 mountain, I realized the force of a remark which you have 

 often made, that we can never be properly prepared to rea- 

 son upon the phenomena of the deluge till we have taken 

 the field and witnessed for ourselves the effects of those con- 

 vulsions which have devastated the surface of our planet. 

 Yours, respectfully , THERON BALDWIN. 



