Description of the High Rock Spring. 343 



rnay, at any time, make the experiment of its deleterious ef- 

 fects on animal life. 



The following dimensions of this singular production of 

 nature, are taken from actual measurement : Perpendicular 

 height, four feet ; circumference at the base, twenty six feet, 

 eight inches ; length of a line drawn over the rock from north 

 to south, eleven feet, seven inches ; length of the same from 

 east to west, ten feet, nine inches ; from the top of the rock 

 to the surface of the water, two feet four inches ; depth of 

 water in the cavity of the rock, seven feet eight inches ; the 

 hole is nearly circular, and measures ten inches across. 



This rock, very properly, belongs to that species of lime- 

 stone termed calcareous tdfa, being evidently the product of 

 the water. It is composed of the carbonate of lime, magne- 

 sia, and the oxide of iron, together with a proportion of sand 

 and clay. It likewise exhibits, when broken, the impressions 

 of leaves and twigs of trees. It is somewhat undulated on 

 its surface, and, about the top, compact and indurated, while 

 near its base it is of a more spongy and friable character, 

 but every where sufficiently compact to render it impervious 

 to water. 



That the water, at some former period, issued from the 

 cavity, and descended upon the sides of the rock, will scarce- 

 ly admit of a doubt, but the precise manner in which the 

 rock was formed, or the time when the water ceased to 

 flow upon its surface, is not quite so obvious ; the most prob- 

 able conjecture is, that the basis of this mass was commenced 

 beneath the surface of the earth, that the water, thus confi- 

 ned within the limits of its own sediment, continued to rise, 

 and as it escaped over the sides of its prison, constantly ad- 

 ded to the dimensions of its walls. In this manner it would 

 continue to rise, until the column of water in the rock balan- 

 ced the power that forced it up, in which case it would be- 

 come stationary, and it is but just to infei-, that, in process of 

 time, the power so propelling the water might be diminish- 

 ed in its force, when the water in the spring would of course 

 sink in exact proportion to the loss of that power. 



There was an opinion prevailing among the early settlers, 

 that the rock had been fractured by the fail of a tree, and to 

 this'accident they imputed the failure of the water to run over 

 its top, believing that it escaped through a fissure, which, al- 

 though invisible, they still imagined must exist. This conjec- 

 ture however, does not appear to be well founded ; the spring 



