Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-06-26
MISCELLANEOUS.
From the Christian Observer.
REMARKABLE WATER
SPCUTS.

The following article, communicated
for our columns some months since,
is record of one of the wonders of
the natural world. By those who stu
dy or observe lis phenomena, it will be
contemplated with interest. The az
count Oft here given IS the substance
of letter from the Rev. Isaac AMBER
SON, d. D., of Maryvile, East Tennes.
see, to his brother, the Hon. SAMUEL
ANDERSON, who resides in the vicini-s
ty of Murfreesborough, Tenn.-Ed.
'On the last Saturday night of July,
1914, there fell between 9 o'clock and
midnight upwards of one hundred water
spouts in this, (Blount) county, on
Chiihowe Mountain and its ridges. I
have scenajnety odd, and have the
testimony of responsible men that
twelve or fifteen others fell out, which |
have not seen. Most have seen, has
been by ascending some hill or noun
tain, and counting all that may be in
view on an opposite mountain or ridge.
Yet / have been on the ground to
examine some eighteen or twenty, and
would have visited many more, but am
rather unable to Chamber over ridges
and mountains even to satisfy curios-
ity that feel very strongly. One of
them that ! visited fell on the curb of
ridge, and it seems as if the momen-
tum ofthe falling spout was SO great,
that it sunk to the solid rock beneath
in moment, splashing the clay on the
timber standing around from 10 to 90
feet high, and driving before it all the
clay, gravel, loose rock, and trees, that
stood in its way, spreading as it des-
cended the hill in the shape of an open
fan, being six or eight feet broad where
the spout struck, and about IS or 100
yards broad at the foot Of the hill, where
ykundreds of wagon loads of gravel,
d~y, rock, and timber, are deposited.
cha2he second which l examined in
company with Mr.. Parker, fell near the
curb of a steep ridge, and sunk into
the ground at least seven feet, and took
direction towards deep ravlne, car
rying with its current the whole ground
with its rock and trees, Just as deep as
the solid rock would let it. On the
sides of the ridges that bound the
narrow rayine, a other spouts fell, one
of which droxesinto the ground 10 or
i feet, and to that depth carried every
thing before it. Others sunk from 4
to 6 feet. These all rushed into the
same ravine with force almost iresis-
tibie. We judged that there might
have been more than one thousand wa
con loads of wood of the timber un-.
prooted and broken down within the
space of a quarter of a mile-the ex-
tent ofthis family of water falls. OF
the quantity of clay, rock, &C., we did
not try to form an estimate.
/ examined third in company with
DR.. Gillespie. The first one of this
family fell near the top of Chilhowe
mountain, and on the sides of the rid
ges, forming deep zigzag ravine; in
the distance ofhalf a mile, there fell IL,
perforating the earth, until stopped by
the solidrock, and rushing with i'm
petuous fury into the same rayine, dri-
wing before them huge rocks, uprooted
trees, gravel, and clay. One Of these
rocks, driven before the mighty mo-
mentum for quarter ola mile, meas
ures Is feet in length, 10 inches in
thickness, and II in breadth. The