I 
ADDENDA. 635 
“ The centre of the slide was then precipitated upon the head of Washington-street, over¬ 
whelming the buildings on both sides, except one dwelling at the corner of Hill and 
Washington-streets, which was partially destroyed. The number of houses destroyed on 
Washington-street was eight. The slide passed down Washington to Hill-street, which it 
crossed, and proceeding a few yards beyond, it was finally arrested.” 
The breadth of the slide, just above where it crossed the first street, is two hundred and 
ninety paces ; at the next street below, one hundred and ninety paces; and from the top of 
the bank, to where the slide reached, is about five hundred yards, as estimated by the eye. 
Fifth-street, over a length of about ninety yards, was entirely overwhelmed by the ava¬ 
lanche, and has not been reopened; and all the space between that and Hill-street is covered 
by a confused mass of hillocks of clay and gravel, twenty or thirty feet deep in many places. 
The clay in laminated masses exhibits its laminas inclined to every point of the compass, 
and making all possible angles of dip, presenting the same marks of confusion that is so 
frequently witnessed among the slate rocks of the Hudson valley, where they have been 
broken up, intersecting axes of disturbance. After the progressive motion of the avalanche 
had ceased, so far as the eye could perceive, the mass of earth continued to heave and roll 
in places, by the lateral thrust of the mass pressing onward and causing the clay to slip 
and burst up, forming small hills. 
The surface of slidden earth covers several acres; and now, more than seven months after 
the slide, it is still a mass of irregular ragged hillocks, showing the laminae of clay dipping 
in every direction. Several days after the preceding slide, another nearly as extensive 
occurred, within a few rods of the former. 
“About half past five o’clock yesterday afternoon (February 21st), another slide occurred 
immediately on the south of the avalanche of the 17th. Its movement was witnessed by 
many, and was at first so slow that any one within its reach could easily have escaped.” 
“ The woodshed attached to a dwelling at the base of the hill on the south of the avalanche 
was carried away, and the house had a narrow escape. 
“ The amount of earth brought down by this slide is not much surpassed by that of Friday 
(17th). A large proportion of the former deposit was moved forward by the last slide about 
fifty feet. 
“ P. S. 12 M. Feh. 22c?. The earth has moved considerable since last evening, making, we 
think, the aggregate of the last slide equal in amount to the first. The hill at this time 
presents a peculiarly interesting appearance. Besides the mass that has found a resting place 
on the level below, a huge mass, an acre perhaps, has separated from the hill and sunk about 
fifty feet, and slidden forward perhaps one hundred or more, leaving a wide and deep chasm 
between, from the side of which water rushed in powerful streams all night, from two holes 
in the gravel beds above the clay. The apertures are two or three feet in diameter; and some 
adventurous persons who have climbed within a few feet of them, say they penetrate far into 
the bosom of the hill.”* 
Troy Budget, February 27, 1843, 
