84 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



pany's servants assembled for dinner, the water of the river was at 

 its ordinary height, and before they had half dined ail the country 

 was flooded a foot higher than two years since, when there was a 

 hurricane and a most violent storm. It is very remarkable, that 

 at one o'clock all the extraordinary water was gone, and the river 

 again at its ordinary height. There has been no earthquake that 

 could cause it, neither was there any such thing in other rivers. 



In other instances the cause is peculiarly clear, though the vio- 

 lence with which it operates, is most ruinous and astonishing. The 

 following is a case of this kind that occurred in the valley of St. 

 John's, near Keswick in Cumberland, August 2-2, 1749* We lake 

 the account as published in the Phil. Trans, for 1750, and coin- 

 iimnicated by John Lock, Esq. F.R.S. 



This remarkable fall of water happened at nine o'clock in the 

 evening, in the midst of the most terrible thunder, and incessant 

 lightning, ever known in that part in the memory of the oldest man 

 living, the preceding afternoon having been extremely hot and 

 sultry. And what seems very uncommon, and difficult to account 

 for, the inhabitants of the vale, of good credit, affirm they heard 

 a strauge buzzing noise like that of a malt-mill, or the sound of 

 wind in the tops of trees for two hours together before the clouds 

 broke. From the havock it has made in so short a time, for it 

 was all over in less than two hours, it must have far exceeded any 

 thunder-shower that we have ever seen. Most probably it was a 

 spout or large body of water, uhich, by the rarefaction of the air, 

 occasioned by that incessant lightning, broke all at once on the tops 

 of these mountains, and so came down in a sheet of water on the 

 valley below. 



This little valley of St. John's lies east and west, extending about 

 three miles in length and half a mile broad, closed in on the south 

 and north sides, with prodigious high, steep, rocky mountains : 

 those on the north side, called Legburthet Fells, had almost the 

 uhole of this cataract. It appears also that this vast spout did not 

 extend above a mile in length; for it had effect only on four small 

 brooks, which came trickling down from the sides of the rocky 

 mountains. But no person, that does not see it, can form any 

 idea of the ruinous work occasioned by these rivulets at that time, 

 and in the space of an hour and h;4f. At the bottom of CaUheety 



