22 MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 



last year, a farmer, who lived nearest the moss, was 

 alarmed with an unusual noise. The crust had at 

 once given way, and the black deluge was rolling to- 

 wards his house. When he was gone out with a 

 lantern to see the cause of his fright, he saw the 

 stream approach him ; and first thought that it was 

 the dunghill, that, by some supernatural cause, had 

 been set in motion ; but soon discovering the danger, 

 he gave notice to his neighbours with all expedition ; 

 but others received no other advice but what this 

 Stygian tide gave them ; some by its noise, many by 

 its entrance into their houses, and I have been as- 

 sured that some were surprized with it even in their 

 beds ; these past a horrible night, remaining totally 

 ignorant of their fate, and the cause of the calamity, 

 till the morning, when their neighbours with diffi- 

 culty got them out through the roof. About 300 

 acres of moss were thus discharged, and above 400 

 of land covered ; the houses either overthrown or 

 filled to the roofs ; and the hedges overwhelmed ; 

 but, providentially, not a human life lost. Several 

 cattle were suffocated, and tho& which were housed 

 had a very small chance of escaping. The case of a 

 cow is so singular as to deserve mention. She was 

 the only one of eight, in the same cow-house, that 

 was saved, after having stood sixty hours up to the 

 neck in mud and water. When she was relieved, 

 she did not refuse to eat, but would not taste water, 

 nor could even look at it without shewing manifest 

 signs of horror. 



