Miscellaneous Notices of Mountain Scenery y ^c. 231 



a greater accumulation of water &c., at this place, than at 

 any other ; and just below the point where this wreck of the 

 mountain tumbled into Mill Brook, I should not think it ex- 

 aggeration to say, that a perpendicular, raised from the bed 

 of the stream as it now runs, to a line drawn across the 

 channel, and connecting points on either side where logs, 

 sticks, &c. lie in such a manner, as to show that they must 

 have been washed there by the current, would equal one 

 hundred feet in length. It is certainly surprising^ how, even 

 on a mountain as precipitous as this — such a mass starting 

 with a width of only four rods, could acquire sufficient mo- 

 mentum to carry before it an entire forest, and rocks of an 

 enormous size : but gravity created that resistless power, 

 which could so many times change its direction and urge it 

 down the stream, in defiance of all the obstacles that oppo- 

 sed its progress, and where the elevation was constantly les- 

 sening. The principal and immediate agent was water, oth- 

 erwise, the mass would not have proceeded farther than 

 where it struck Mill Brook — for it is easy to see that a mass 

 composed merely of trees, and rocks, and sand, however 

 enormous its bulk or tremendous its momentum, could not 

 have gone much farther than the first two hundred rods. 

 But how could the water accumulate on the sides of that 

 precipitous mountain to the depth of thirty feet, (as stated 

 by T. B.) which I should think a moderate statement ? This 

 question arose as I stood gazing in astonishment, and I was 

 strongly inclined to pronounce it impossible, notwithstanding 

 facts which undeniably proved the contrary, that were staring 

 me in the face. But it will not appear incredible when we con- 

 sider that the timber above Mill Brook was principally hem- 

 lock and spruce, the boughs of which, would be extremely 

 well calculated to produce an obstruction of the flood. A 

 dam might easily be formed of the logs, boughs, rocks and 

 earth, which composed this mighty moving mass, and the 

 upturning of thousands of trees with the soil adhering to 

 their roots, would greatly aid in effecting the object. And 

 this appears to have been its modus operandi throughout the 

 whole course. The ground was desperately disputed, but 

 whenever a check was given to its progress, the foaming 

 torrent would accumulate behind, till it had gathered suffi- 

 cient force to burst every barrier — and again the huge pile 

 proceeded thundering down the mountain. The forest seems 

 to have been prostrated with as much ease as if it had been 

 but a field of grain. The mass evidently went down in the 



