By this simple expedient, it would soon appear, that there is no such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice; for, from the shortest day, the owner would, every clear evening, see the disc advancing, at its setting, to the westward of the object; and, from the ongest day, observe the sun retiring backwards every evening, at its setting, towards the object westward, till, in a few nights, it would set quite behind it, and so by degrees to the west of it; for when the sun comes near the summer solstice, the whole disc of it would at first set behind the object: after a time, the northern limb would first appear, and so every night gradually more, till at length the whole diameter would set northward of it for about three nights; but, on the middle night of the three, sensibly more remote than the former or following. When beginning its recess from the summer tropic, it would continue more and more to be hidden every night, till at length it would descend quite behind the object again; and so nightly more and more to the westward. relation to the latitude in which the instruments were placed, or to the degrees of solar influence that might exist in the regions in which they were used, and of which they would partake; he also noticed, in coincidence with these movements, the daily expansion and contraction of the petals and leaves of most plants, and that the different species of the heliotropium and chrysanthemum, turned their corollæ round toward the sun for many hours during the day. Hence he concluded that an instrument might be constructed upon principles nearly similar to the laws which regulate these motions in plants. This instrument he formed of a circular ring of cork, three inches in diameter. Into this is fixed twenty-five needles fully impregnated with the magnetic fluid, and these are placed at equal distances round the circumference of the circle, with their north and south poles placed outwards alternately. This circle is affixed to a light slip of wood, five inches long, and one-fourth of an inch broad, by a piece of copper wire, of a semicircular form, the extremities of which are passed through the opposite sides of the cork's circle; and the slip of wood attached to the centre of the wire. Into the centre of the bar is fixed an agate cup; and the whole traverses like a compass needle upon a fine steel point, the bar of wood being equipoised by a small weight at the end of it, equivalent to the weight of the needles. This instrument, when placed with a disc of purple velvet across the needles, in the sun's rays, continued to revolve nearly the whole day, moving always in the direction from east to west by south, in the course of the sun's apparent motion. It moves forty or fifty degrees to the light of a single candle held close to the side of the circle. A piece of clear amber, formed into a convex lens, if fixed into a circle of cork, and suspended by a fine hair or filament, under a glass cover, will also be arrested by the incidence of the solar rays, and will continue to present its surface to the sun, if unclouded, as long as he is invisible above the horizon. It is, perhaps, not generally known, that the conducting power of living plants, in favouring the rapid distribution of electricity, has been reckoned three millions of times greater than that of water. — -ED. LETTER LXXXVII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE. Mugire videbis Sub pedibus terram, et descendere montibus ornos. WHEN I was a boy, I used to read, with astonishment and implicit assent, accounts in Baker's Chronicle of walking hills and travelling mountains. John Philips, in his Cyder, alludes to the credit that was given to such stories with a delicate but quaint vein of humour, peculiar to the author of the Splendid Shilling: I nor advise, nor reprehend, the choice Of Marcley Hill; * "the apple no where finds A kinder mould: yet 'tis unsafe to trust Deceitful ground: who knows but that, once more, But, when I came to consider better, I began to suspect that, though our hills may never have journeyed far, yet that the ends of many of them have slipped and fallen away at distant periods, leaving the cliffs bare and abrupt. This seems to have been the case with Nore and Whetham Hills, and especially with the ridge between Harteley Park and Wardle-ham, where the ground has slid into vast swellings and furrows, and lies still in such romantic confusion as cannot be accounted for from any other cause. A strange event, that happened not long since, justifies our suspicions; which, though it befell not within the limits of this parish, yet as it was within the hundred of Selborne, and as the circumstances were singular, may fairly claim a place in a work of this nature. * Marcley Hill is near the confluence of the Lug and Wye, about six miles east of Hereford. In the year 1595, it was, after roaring and shaking in a terrible manner for three days together, about six o'clock on Sunday evening, put in motion, and continued moving for eight hours, in which time it advanced upwards of two hundred feet from its first situation, and mounted twelve fathoms higher than it was before. In the place where it set out, it left a gap four hundred feet long, and three hundred and twenty broad; and in its progress it overthrew a chapel, together with trees and houses that stood in its way. - ED. The months of January and February in the year 1774, were remarkable for great melting snows and vast gluts of rain, so that, by the end of the latter month, the land-springs, or levants, began to prevail, and to be near as high as in the memorable winter of 1764. The beginning of March also went on in the same tenor, when, in the night between the 8th and 9th of that month, a considerable part of the great woody hanger at Hawkley was torn from its place, and fell down, leaving a high freestone cliff naked and bare, and resembling the steep side of a chalk-pit. It appears that this huge fragment, being, perhaps, sapped and undermined by waters, foundered, and was ingulfed, going down in a perpendicular direction; for a gate, which stood in the field on the top of the hill, after sinking with its posts for thirty or forty feet, remained in so true and upright a position, as to open and shut with great exactness, just as in its first situation. Several oaks also are still standing, and in a state of vegetation, after taking the same desperate leap. That great part of this prodigious mass was absorbed in some gulf below, is plain also from the inclining ground at the bottom of the hill, which is free and unencumbered, but would have been buried in heaps of rubbish, had the fragment parted and fallen forward. About an hundred yards from the foot of this hanging coppice stood a cottage by the side of a lane; and two hundred yards lower, on the other side of the lane, was a farm-house, in which lived a labourer and his family; and just by, a stout new barn. The cottage was inhabited by an old woman and her son, and his wife. These people, in the evening, which was very dark and tempestuous, observed that the brick floors of their kitchens began to heave and part, and that the walls seemed to open, and the roofs to crack; but they all agree that no tremor of the ground, indicating an earthquake, was ever felt, only that the wind continued to make a most tremendous roaring in the woods and hangers. The miserable inhabitants, not daring to go to bed, remained in the utmost solicitude and confusion, expecting every moment to be buried under the ruins of their shattered edifices. When daylight came, they were at leisure to contemplate the devastations of the night. They then found that a deep rift, or chasm, had opened under their houses, and torn them, as it were, in two, and that one end of the barn had suffered in a similar manner : that a pond near the cottage had undergone a strange reverse, becoming deep at the shallow end, and so vice versa that many large oaks were removed out of their perpendicular some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of neighbouring trees; and that a gate was thrust forward, with its hedge, full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made to it. From the foot of the cliff, the general course of the ground, which is pasture, inclines in a moderate descent for half a mile, and is interspersed with some hillocks, which were rifted in every direction, as well towards the great woody hanger as from it. In the first pasture the deep clefts began, and, running across the lane and under the buildings, made such vast shelves that the road was impassable for some time; and so over to an arable field on the other side, which was strangely torn and disordered. The second pasture field, being more soft and springy, was protruded forward without many fissures in the turf, which was raised in long ridges resembling graves, lying at right angles to the motion. At the bottom of this enclosure, the soil and turf rose many feet against the bodies of some oaks that obstructed their farther course, and terminated this awful commotion.* *There are numerous instances on record of mountain slips of this kind, in various places of the world; indeed, they are almost of daily occurrence, to a greater or lesser extent. That which is recorded by our author, is trifling when compared to some others. We may particularize the fall of Mount Rusfi, in Switzerland, which took place in 1806. "Here," says Saussure, writing on the spot," but three weeks ago, was one of the most delightfully fertile valleys of all Switzerland, green and luxuriant, adorned with little villages, full of secure and happy farmers. Now, three of these villages are for ever erased from the face of the earth, and an extended desolation, burying alive several hundred peasants, overspreads the valley of Lowertz." Early in the evening of the second of September, an immense projection of the mountain of Rusfi gave way, and was precipitated into the valley. In four minutes, it completely overwhelmed three villages, and part of two others. The torrent of earth and stones was more rapid than that of lava, and its effects as irresistible and terrible. The mountain, in its tremendous descent, carried trees, rocks, houses, and every thing before it; the mass spread in every direction, so as to bury completely a space of charming country, more than three miles square. The force of the earth was so great, that it not only overspread the hollow of the valley, but even ascended to a considerable height on the side of the opposite mountain. Part of the falling mass rolled into the lake of Lowertz, filling a fifth part of it up; and raised the water so much, that two islands within it, and the village of Sever, were, for a time, completely overwhelmed by the swell. By this frightful catastrophe, four hundred and thirty-four individuals lost their lives; and there were also lost one hundred and seventy cows and horses, and one hundred and three goats and sheep'; eighty-seven meadows destroyed, sixty meadows damaged; ninety-three houses entirely destroyed, eight houses damaged, and uninhabitable; one hundred and sixty-six cow-houses, barns, &c. destroyed, and nineteen damaged. - ED. The perpendicular height of the precipice, in general, is twenty-three yards; the length of the lapse, or slip, as seen from the fields below, one hundred and eighty-one; and a partial fall, concealed in the coppice, extends seventy yards more so that the total length of this fragment that fell was two hundred and fifty-one yards. About fifty acres of land suffered from this violent convulsion; two houses were entirely destroyed; one end of a new barn was left in ruins, the walls being cracked through the very stones that composed them; a hanging coppice was changed to a naked rock; and some grass grounds and an arable field so broken and rifted by the chasms, as to be rendered, for a time, neither fit for the plough, nor safe for pasturage, till considerable labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling the surface, and filling in the gaping fissures. LETTER LXXXVIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE. Resonant arbusta. THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field, interspersed with furze, close to the back of this village, well known by the name of the Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, or field-cricket;* which, though frequent in these parts, is by no means a common insect in many other counties. As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of a naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy of these grylli, and study their mode of life; but they are so shy and cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them; for, feeling a person's footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over. At first, we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without any great success; for either we could not get to the bottom of the hole, which often terminated under a great stone, or else, in breaking up the ground, we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out of one so bruised, we * Acheta campestris, Fabricius. — ED. |