68 



NATURAL HISTORY 



such vast shelves that the road was im- 

 passable for some time ; and so over to an 

 arable field on the other side, which was 

 strangely torn and disordered. The second 

 pasture field, being more soft and springy, 

 was protruded forward without many fis- 

 sures in the turf, which was raised in long 

 ridges resembling graves, lying at right 

 angles to the motion. At the bottom of 

 this enclosure the soil and turf rose many 

 feet against the bodies of some oaks that 

 obstructed their farther course and termi- 

 nated this awful commotion. 



The perpendicular height of the preci- 

 pice, in general, is twenty-three yards ; the 

 length of the lapse, or slip, as seen from the 

 fields below, one hundred and eighty-one ; 

 and a partial fall, concealed in the coppice, 

 extends seventy yards more : so that the 

 total length of this fragment that fell was 

 two hundred and fifty-one yards. About 

 fifty acres of land suffered from this violent 

 convulsion : two houses were entirely de- 

 stroyed ; one end of a new barn was left in 

 ruins, the walls being cracked through the 



