288 Deerfield Disruption. 



and on the 3d of March, it had overflowed the ground where 

 the above described phenomenon occurred, and did not recede 

 from it for 24 hours. Its greatest depth there, was five feet. 

 The snow was nearly one foot deep when the flood happened, 

 and being a nonconductor of heat, the temperature of the sur- 

 face of the ground was not probably much changed from its 

 state in February, until the water came in contact with it. It 

 may not be amiss to give the state of the thermometer on the 

 last of February and beginning of March. 



On the third of March, about sunset, some lads were *aiHng 

 near the spot where the disruption appears, and saw the water 

 in considerable agitation, with much bubbling, and at short in- 

 tervals it was thrown up in several places to the height of 3 

 or 4 feet. They saw no rupture in the earth, although they 

 came within two or three rods of the spot, and state the water 

 to have been two feet deep. About one o'clock on the morn- 

 ing of March 4th, Mr. Seth Sheldon and family, living one mile 

 south from this spot, and being awake, were alarmed by a loud 

 report from the north, by which their house and furniture were 

 much shaken. They compared the sound, though louder by 

 far than they had ever heard from this cause, to that of a 

 cracking in the earth by frost in severe weather. Some others 

 living rather nearer the spot, were awakened by the same re- 

 port. That the rupture in the earth was made at that time is 

 probable, though not certain. 



It may be proper to state, that during the flood, no ice, ex- 

 cept a few loose masses, was carried over, or near the spot 

 where the disruption appears. This, therefore, could not 

 have produced it. 



Fig. 1. is a transverse section, taken with a theodolite, from 

 Deerfield river 28 rods south, crossing the longer axis of the 



