Engraved by Angus from abiding.

VIEW OF THE PETRIFYING SPRING, OR DROPPING WELL

AT KNARESBOROUGH IN YORKSHIRE.

lebrated Dr. George Berkeley, Lord Bishop of Cloyne, who in the course of his theory to account for the petrifying property of the lake, gives us his opinion that stones are unorganized vegetables, formed by an accretion of salts; which he urges in opposition to those of his own age, who conceived stones to be organized vege tables produced from seeds. Waters impregnated with calcareous earth, and other petrifying materials, and productive of all the effects here spoken of with astonishment, are now known to be frequent in most parts of the world; one of the most curious examples, in point of picturesque scenery, is perhaps theDropping-well at Knares➡ borough; and we have already noticed a similar property in several other waters, especially in the lake of Solfatara in Campagna. [EDITOR.]

SECTION XI.

Inundations.

We have already observed that many of the large rivers of the east, as the Nile, the Ganges, and the Indus, are subject to periodical exundations, and have pointed out some of the more ob vious causes of such an effect. There are others, however, that are subject to occasional overflows, and in many instances from causes that are altogether concealed. Among these we may per haps enumerate the inundation of the Thames, about the year 1705, at Dagenham and Havering marches in Essex, which made an excavation nearly twenty feet deep, and laid open a great num. ber of trees, mostly alder, buried under a soil obviously composed of the mud of the Thames, and which had, in all probability, been overthrown by some previous inundation of a similar kind.

The following, in the island of Mauritius, is to the same effect: On the 22d of March, 1696, observes Mr. Witsen, at half an hour after twelve o'clock, being calm but a little rainy, the river which passes by the plain ground of Noardwyek, in the space of a quarter of an hour' swelled to such a height, that the sugar-mill, the sugar-work, and almost all the said ground was ruined, the most part of the sugar-canes being rooted or torn out of the ground by the violence of the torrent. It cannot be imagined what had caused so sudden a swelling of this river, for the rain was not very hard, and could not have produced that effect; for about twelve o'clock, when the com

pany's servants assembled for dinner, the water of the river was at its ordinary height, and before they had half dined all the country was flooded a foot higher than two years since, when there was a hurricane and a most violent storm. It is very remarkable, that at one o'clock all the extraordinary water was gone, and the river again at its ordinary height. There has been no earthquake that could cause it, neither was there any such thing in other rivers.

In other instances the cause is peculiarly clear, though the violence with which it operates, is most ruinous and astonishing. The following is a case of this kind that occurred in the valley of St. John's, near Keswick in Cumberland, August 22, 1749. We take the account as published in the Phil. Trans. for 1750, and communicated by John Lock, Esq. F.R.S.

This remarkable fall of water happened at nine o'clock in the evening, in the midst of the most terrible thunder, and incessant lightning, ever known in that part in the memory of the oldest man living, the preceding afternoon having been extremely hot and sultry. And what seems very uncommon, aud difficult to account for, the inhabitants of the vale, of good credit, affirm they heard a strange buzzing noise like that of a malt-mill, or the sound of wind in the tops of trees for two hours together before the clouds broke. From the havock it has made in so short a time, for it was all over in less than two hours, it must have far exceeded any thunder-shower that we have ever seen. 'Most probably it was a spout or large body of water, which, by the rarefaction of the air, occasioned by that incessant lightning, broke all at once on the tops of these mountains, and so came down in a sheet of water on the valley below.

This little valley of St. John's lies east and west, extending about three miles in length and half a mile broad, closed in on the south and north sides, with prodigious high, steep, rocky mountains: those on the north side, called Legburthet Fells, had almost the whole of this cataract. It appears also that this vast spout did not extend above a mile in length; for it had effect only on four small brooks, which came trickling down from the sides of the rocky mountains, But no person, that does not see it, can form any idea of the ruinous work occasioned by these rivulets at that time, and in the space of an hour and half. At the bottom of Catcheety

Gill, which is the name of the greatest, stood a mill and a kiln, which were entirely swept away, in five minutes time, and the place where they formerly stood, now covered with huge rocks, and rubbish, three or four yards deep. One of the mill-stones cannot be found, being covered, as is supposed, in the bottom of this heap of rubbish.

In

In the violence of the storm, the mountain has tumbled so fast down, as to choak up the old course of this brook; and it has forced its way through a shivery rock, where it now runs in a great chasm, four yards wide, and between eight and nine deep. the course of each of these brooks, such monstrous stones, or ras ther rocks, and such vast quantities of gravel and sand, are thrown on their little meadow-fields, as render the same absolutely useless, aad never to be recovered.

It would surpass all credit to give the dimensions and weight of some rocks, which are not only tumbled down the steep parts of the mountains, but carried a considerable way into the fields, several thrown on the banks larger than a team of 10 horses could move. Near a place called Lobwath, one was carried a great way, which was 676 inches, or near 19 yards about. The damage done to the grounds, houses, walls, fences, highways, with a loss of the corn and hay then on the ground, is computed variously, by some at 10001, by others at 15001.

One of these brooks, which is called Mose or Mosedale Beck, which rises near the source of. the others, but runs north from the other side of Legburthet Fells, continues still to be foul and muddy, having, as is supposed, worn its channel so deep in some part of its course, as to work on some mineral substance, which gives it the colour of water flowing from lead mines, and is so strong as to tinge the river Derwent, into which it empties itself, even at the sea, near 20 miles from their meeting.

No country is more unfortunately exposed to ruinous inunda tions than Holland, in consequence of the flatness of the country: the barriers formed by its dykes or sea-banks against the incroachments of the tides, being occasionally, from the united action of rain, wind, and sea-storms, being completely swept away, and the whole country overflowed with the watery devastation. Such was particularly the case in the year 1430; and again in 1686, of

which last the following is the account contained in the London Gazette.

"Groningen, Nov. 26.-On Friday the 22d instant, it blew the whole day a most violent storm from the S. E.; towards night the wind changed to the W. then to the N. W. afterwards to the N. E. and back again to the N. W.. The weather continued thus tempestuous all night, accompanied with thunder and lightning; the chimneys and roofs of a great many houses were blown down, and much more mischief was done, but it was not comparable to that which followed; for the dykes not being able to resist the violence of the sea, agitated by these terrible storms, the whole country between this and the Delfziel, being about eighteen English miles, was the next morning overwhelmed with water, which in many places were eight foot higher than the very dykes, and many people and thousands of cattle were drowned, the water breaking even through the walls of the town of Delfziel, to that height that the inhabitants were forced to betake themselves to their garrets and upper rooms for shelter. The whole village of Oterdam is in a manner swept away. At Termunderzyl, there is not one house left, above three hundred people being drowned there, aud only nineteen escaping. Hereskes, Weywert, Woldendorp, and all the villages near the Eems, have suffered extremely. The Western quarter has likewise had its share in this calamity, and the highest lands have not escaped. On Sunday and yesterday it reached this city; the lower parts whereof are now all under water. From the walls of this city we can see nothing but the tops of houses and steeples that remain above water. In a word, the misery and de solation is greater than can be expressed.

"It's impossible to describe the present sad condition of this province, occasioned by a most terrible inundation that happened the 22d instant; the like has not been known these hundred years. The whole province, except the higher parts of this city, lies under water; whole villages have been swept away, and a great many people, with abundance of cattle, drowned; and those that have escaped, sheltering themselves in garrets and upper rooms, are in great distress for want of relief: nothing but lamentations, and the jangling of bells for help, is heard through the whole country; and though all possible care is taken to assist them from hence,