MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 21 



tastrophe, important also as an evidence of how little 

 may effect a sudden change on the aspect of a coun- 

 try, must be interesting. The highest parts of the 

 original moss subsided to the depth of about twenty- 

 five feet, and the height of the moss upon the invaded 

 hollows was at least fifteen feet. Netherby received 

 a view of land and trees unseen before. 



" Solway moss consists of sixteen hundred acres: 

 lies some height above the cultivated tract, and seems 

 to have been nothing but a collection of thin peaty 

 mud : the surface itself was always so near the state 

 of a quagmire, that in most places it was unsafe for 

 any thing heavier than a sportsman to venture on, 

 even in the driest summer. 



" The shell or crust that kept this liquid within 

 bounds, nearest to the valley, was at first of sufficient 

 strength to contain it ; but, by the imprudence of the 

 peat diggers, who were continually working on that 

 side, at length became so weakened, as not longer to 

 he able to resist the weight pressing on it. To this 

 may be added, the fluidity of the moss was greatly 

 increased by three days' rain of unusual violence, 

 which preceded the eruption ; and extended itself in 

 a line as far as Newcastle, took in a part of Durham, 

 and a small portion of Yorkshire, running in a par- 

 allel line of about equal breadth, both sides of which, 

 north and south, experienced an uncommon drought. 

 It is singular that the fall of Newcastle Bridge and 

 this accident happened within a night of each other. 



" Late in the nidit of the 17th of November of the 



