CHAP. IV.] WILLEY SLIDE. 61 



digs him out of his hole. Near Bartlett I was taken to see the 

 skeleton of a bear that had been lately killed. The farmers told 

 me that the racoons do much damage here, by devouring the In 

 dian corn, but the opossum does not extend so far to the north. 



On the second day after leaving Conway we entered a wild 

 and narrow mountain pass, with steep declivities on both sides, 

 where the hills can not be less than 1000 or 1500 feet in vertical 

 height. Here the famous landslip, called the Willey Slide, oc 

 curred in August, 1826. The avalanche of earth, stones, and 

 trees occurring after heavy rains, was so sudden, that it over 

 whelmed all the Willey family, nine in number, who would have 

 escaped had they remained in their humble dwelling ; for, just 

 above it, the muddy torrent was divided into two branches by a 

 projecting rock. The day after the catastrophe a candle was 

 found on the table of their deserted room, burnt down to the 

 socket, and the Bible lying open beside it. 



I was curious to examine the effects of this and other slides 

 of the same date in the White Mountains, to ascertain what effect 

 the passage of mud and heavy stones might have had in furrow 

 ing the hard surfaces of bared rocks over which they had passed ; 

 it having been a matter of controversy among geologists, how far 

 those straight rectilinear grooves and scratches before alluded to,* 

 might have been the result of glacial action, or whether they can 

 be accounted for by assuming that deluges of mud and heavy 

 stones have swept over the dry land. A finer opportunity of 

 testing the adequacy of the cause last mentioned can not be con 

 ceived than is afforded by these hills ; for, in consequence, appar 

 ently, of the jointed structure of the rocks and their decomposition 

 produced by great variations of temperature (for they are subjected 

 to intense summer heat and winter s cold in the course of the 

 year), there is always a considerable mass of superficial detritus 

 ready to be detached during very heavy rains, even where the 

 steep slopes are covered with timber. Such avalanches begin 

 from small points, and, after descending a few hundred yards, cut 

 into the mountain side a deep trench, which becomes rapidly 

 broader and deeper, and they bear down before them the loftiest 

 * Ante, p. 18. 



