PROCEEDINGS OF THE rOLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 513 



fearful character of the elemental strife accompanying the descent o^ water- 

 spouts upon the land; if water-spouts they may be called. 



Once in a g-encration or two, perhaps, a wartcr spout bursts upon some 

 elevated point of a mountain. Previijusly to its descent, the clouds are 

 seen movin<^ to and fro, and commingling' in a confused manner, somewhat 

 as the circling eddies of a vast whirlpool. When concentrated above or 

 around the mountain's summit, the cloud acquires such a density as to 

 wear the appearance of the blackness of darkness. The roll of the accom- 

 panying thunder is deafening, and almost continuous, shaking the eternal 

 hills to their base; while the flashes of lightning following each other in 

 quick succession, afford a glare of glimmering light nearly as luminous as 

 that of the sun. Then comes a river of waters dashjng down the moun- 

 tain-side, and tearing up in its resistless progress earth, rocks and tree?, 

 so as to create in its course a deep canal. The amount of water at times 

 discharged from such clouds is immense, swelling inconsiderable streams 

 into great rivers. 



Many years since, a water-spout burst upon the North Mountain, to the 

 westward of Newville, Pennsylvania, carrying destruction in its course. 

 Many cattle and hogs were drowned at the foot of the mountain, where 

 they were confined within inclosures preventing escape. The largest rocks 

 were torn from their beds, and a deep chasm excavated from the top of the 

 mountain to the valley. Its course can now be traced by the difference in 

 the trees wMthin the channel from those on either side — a growth of pines 

 now occupying it, instead of the oaks and hickories of the surrounding 

 forest. 



Another water-spout fell upon the western end of the Chilhowee Moun- 

 tain, where it faces the Little Tennessee Ptiver, about the date of the first 

 settlement of the country. Its course is marked, like the one at Newville, 

 by a large growth of evergreen trees. Again, on the west side of the 

 same mountain, not far from Tuckalechee Cove, and near Little River, a 

 water-spout fell, not many years since, carrying away a distillery, around 

 which, the day previous, being the Sabbath, the 3"oung men of the vicinity 

 had met, in a frolic, and perpetrated some enormous blasphemies — in their 

 drunken revels undertaking to make a mock of religion, by the administra- 

 tion of its sacraments. Monday was ushered in by as clear a sun as ever 

 shone. In the course of the day, however, the thunder pealed forth a sig- 

 nal, startling the neighborhood into fixed attention: there they beheld, 

 gatheri ig upon the mountain's brow, the ominous cloud, that soon burst 

 out into one vast deluge of water, which, descending down the mountain 

 side, lai<! desolate the very spot where the profanation of Heaven's ordi- 

 nances 1; d occurred. The terror created by this celestial phenomenon was 

 such as to produce a religious revival, accompanied by the conversion of 

 many of the thoughtless fellows who had taken a part in the iniquities of 

 the preceding Sabbath. 



Having seen the traces of all the water-spouts noticed, and having heard 



the descriptions of eye-witnesses, to the accumulation of the cloud which 



produced the rain-fall, in one case so furious in its descent, I concluded, as 



Bsual, that there had been a concentration, to one point, of nearly all the 



[Am. LvsT.j G* 



