22 
MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 
last year, a farmer, who lived nearest the moss, was 
alarmed rvith au unusual noise. The crust had at 
once given way, and the black deluge was rolling to- 
wards his house. When he was gone out with a 
lantern to see the cause of his fright, he saw the 
stream approach him ; and first thought that it was 
the dunghill, that, by some supernatural cause, had 
been set in motion ; but soon discovering the danger, 
he gave notice to his neighbours with all expedition ; 
but others received no other advice but what this 
Stygian tide gave them ; some by its noise, many by 
its entrance into their houses, and I have been as- 
sured that some were surprized tvith it even in their 
beds ; these past a horrible night, remaining totally 
ignorant of their fate, and the cause of the calamity, 
till the morning, when their neighbours with diffi- 
culty got them out through the roof. About 300 
acres of moss wore thus discharged, and above 400 
of land covered ; the houses either overthrown or 
filled to the roofs ; and the hedges overwhelmed ; 
but, providentially, not a human life lost. Several 
cattle were suffocated, and those which w'ere housed 
had a very small chance of escaping. The case of a 
cow is BO singular as to deserve mention. She was 
the only one of eight, in the same cow-house, that 
was saved, after liaving stood sixty hours up to the 
neck in mud and water. When she tvas relieved, 
she did not refuse to eat, but would not taste water, 
nor could even look at it without shewing manifest 
signs of horror. 
