July 31, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



85 



and three miles in width, the longer axis being 

 north and south, and it rises from a nearly 

 level area elevated fourteen hundred feet above 

 the sea. On the east side, there is a close 

 connection with Mount Deception, a spur from 

 the principal White-Mountain range ; and the 

 Cherry-Mountain road, passing over the lowest 

 point, reaches the altitude of twenty- two hun- 

 dred feet. At the very north end of Cherry 

 Mountain is an elevation known as ' Owl's 

 Head,' about seventeen hundred and fifty feet 

 above the plain. Down the steep side of this 

 part of the mountain, at six a.m. of Friday, 

 Jul}' 10, there rushed an immense mass of 

 earth, rocks, and trees, producing a land-slide 

 destined to be as memorable in the annals of 

 White-Mountain history as the famous Willey 

 slide of 1826. In less than five minutes this 

 mass of earth slid down an inclined plane 

 one and a half miles in length, a vertical 

 descent of seventeen hundred feet, completely 

 demolishing a partiallj- built house, a large 

 barn, injuring fatall}' one man, killing several 

 cattle and smaller domestic animals, both 

 those confined within enclosures and those 

 feeding in the open field. 



At the very base of the mountain is a car- 

 riage-road running east and west. Upon the 

 south side, upon a slight eminence, stood Mr. 

 Oscar Stanley's house, with a small orchard 

 partly behind, and partly to the west. The 

 stream which descended the valley of the slide 

 flowed ver}' near this house, ordinarily dis- 

 charging as much water as would pass through 

 a hoop of twelve inches diameter. A quarter 

 of a mile nearer the mountain stands a small 

 house occupied b}' John Boudreau. The debris 

 nearly touched Boudreau' s doorsteps, but had 

 not force enough to remove Stanley's orchard. 

 It spread over seventy-five feet width of grass- 

 land, while the principal portion passed on 

 against the house. The greater elevation of 

 the orchard seems to have insured its preser- 

 vation. 



Mr. Stanley, with two joiners, were at work 

 in the house at the time of the slide. For 

 half an hour Y->revious there had been a heavy 

 thunder-shower, but it was onty raining gently 

 when there came a noise sounding something 

 like thunder. Stanley spoke to his compan- 

 ions, who suggested the noise came from a train 

 on the railway. He ran to the door, saw the 

 slide coming, and cried out, "I am going to 

 get out of this : the mountain is coming 

 down ! " They all jumped for their lives, and 

 barely escaped. The hired man. Walker, who 

 was milking in the barn, was less fortunate. 

 He heard the noise, ran from the barn, but was 



caught by the flying timbers and badly bruised, 

 so that he died a few da3^s later. He was 

 buried on the 16th, upon the anniversary of 

 his birth, and also the day set for his mar- 

 riage with the oldest daughter of Mrs. Stanlej'. 



The arable land of Mr. Stanley-, amounting 

 to about twenty acres, lay upon the north side 

 of the road, and it is entirely covered b}' mud 

 and stones. G-rass, oats, wheat, potatoes, and 

 the garden were all buried under several feet 

 thickness of ' calamity,' as he described it. 

 Several observers from a distance heard the 

 noise, and saw the mass slide down the moun- 

 tain. It would seem that rain had fallen copi- 

 ously during the whole of the night previous, 

 completely saturating the natural earth or de- 

 composed granite gravel of the mountain-side. 

 Just before six a.m., another thunder-cloud 

 moved against that which had been discharging 

 during the night, so that the slide seems to 

 have been nearly synchronous with the col- 

 lision of the clouds. This shock would natu- 

 rally produce what is commonly called a ^ cloud- 

 burst,' when an extraordinary amount of water 

 falls. This, meeting debris already saturated, 

 produced the conditions favorable for the de- 

 scent of the mass, especially should any acci- 

 dental cause furnish a starting-point. Such a 

 cause existed in this case, which will be men- 

 tioned presentl}". 



The rock at the summit is peculiar, being a 

 syenite characterized by very small crystals of 

 hornblende. Two hundred feet down, this is 

 replaced by a greenish porphyry, verging into 

 a granite called the ' Albany granite ' in the 

 ' New-Hampshire geological report.' This 

 porphyry is not YQvy thick. Below it is 

 found the rock making up the principal bulk 

 of Cherry Mountain, a species of protogene or 

 chloritic granite. All these rocks are traversed 

 by jointed planes, dividing the granites into 

 parallel plates two, four, or more inches thick, 

 and all dipping northerly, or down the steep 

 slope at an angle of about 20°. 



This slide started less than forty feet below 

 the summit of Owl's Head, from a precipice of 

 perhaps ten feet altitude. The site is further 

 designated by a vacant place in the precipice, 

 from which large blocks were detached, pre- 

 sumably the beginning of the catastrophe. 

 For a hundred and eight}' feet vertical descent, 

 the slope may be 20°, and the direction of 

 the movement N. 60° E. for about half a 

 mile. Then follows a sort of shelf, or step, 

 where the inclination suddenly increases, be- 

 coming perhaps 30° to 35° for a short half- 

 mile in distance, and a fall of six hundred and 

 fifty feet. 



