Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-10-04
A BOTTOMLESS PIT.
That Is What Is Occasioning Trouble on
the Rutland at Ferrisburgh.

That Is What Is occasioning Trouble on
the Rutland at Ferrisburgh.
For the last three weeks the Rutland
railroad people have been contending
with a sort of bottomless pit, about half
a mile south of Ferrisburgh depot, SAYS
the Burlington News.
AT this point the railroad crosses Lewis
creek at the "Black Bridge" and some
twenty or thirty rods south of this bridge
the creek makes an elbow, cutting along
the base of the railroad fill, though in a
sluggish way with no particular washing
away of the banks. About three weeks
ago, Frank Lessor and Eugene Durham,
two Of the men in Joseph Lamay's section,
in going to their homes at Ferrisburg
Center, were Mortified to find a drop out
in the road bed 100 feet long and 20 feet
deep. The soil had slid out from under
the east side of the track, and the iron
remained suspended, though gradually
settling into the abyss. 1t is needless to
say that the men in question allowed no
grass to grow under their feet as one of
them sped north and the other south to
intercept passenger trains that were
shortly due. The company commenced
filing the chasm with stone. and had the
fill nearly level and ready for the track,
when another slide out occurred, the sur
face going down fourteen feet in about
twenty minutes. A row of spikes had
been driven along the bottom of the fill
from 30 to ~ feet into the ground and the
second slide carried away about quarter
OF an acre of surface and this row of
spikes into the channel OF the creek, the
spikes remaining in perpendicular posi-
ton, the same as when they started.
When the second slide out or down
occurred about so car loads of stone
had been dumped. Since then the land
has settled nearly half dozen times.
Last Saturday there had been over 700
car loads of stone and dirt, 339 Of them
stone, dumped into the hole, and it would
evidently take good many train loads
more to level up, provided the sinking
business had come to standstill. A
mass of dirt had been pushed into Lewis
creek, damming up the channel to depth
of five to eight feet. The river was set
back over great extent of intervale,
and it looked as though a new course
would be formed through the meadow on
the Moshier farm occupied by Ben Field.
The subsoil seems to be soft blue clay
that handles like lard or soft putty. A
testing rod was run down 80 feet, and so
far as anyone knows it could have been
kept going only that the rod was not long
enough. The rod was thrust down by
hand. Whether there is quicksand be-
meath the cloggy mass no one has been
down to see. 1t seems that when Henry
}. Carpenter, about a mile and half
north, was drilling his deep well they
went over ninety feet through soft clay
similar to the clay showed to the surface
at this slide. After this they struck hard
pan and rock. The railroad has been
running over this spot since 1913, and
no one was looking for such drop out
any more than any other stream along
the line. The track has been more diff
cult to keep at level, perhaps. Now
the slide has reached the opposite side of
the creek it may stop, or continuous
giving away underneath may push the
bank of earth still higher and further.
The railroad company will, no doubt,
keep sharp eye on this Lewis creek
drop-out.