When a higher site can be
obtained in the neighbourhood, out of reach of floods, it is pure
folly to build in a _haugh_--that is, the first plain beside a river.
We were coming within a mile of the Bilberry embankment, when we began
to observe a new class of phenomena. Hitherto, the channel of the
stream had not exhibited any unusual materials; nor had its banks been
much broken, except in a few places. We had been on the outlook to
observe if the flood, and the heavy matters with which it was charged,
had produced any abrasion of the subjacent rock-structure. No such
effects could be traced. We were now, however, getting within the
range of the scattered debris of the embankment, and quickly detected
the presence of masses of a kind of rubbish different from the rounded
pebbles usually found in the bed of a river. There were long
_trainees_, composed of mud and clay, including angular blocks of
stone, which were constantly increasing in size as we passed onwards.
These blocks were the materials of the embankment, which the water had
carried thus far. No ploughing up of the channel had taken place, but
simply much new matter had been deposited. In some places, these fresh
deposits had transgressed into the fields; and where trees were
involved, the bark on the side toward the upper part of the valley had
generally been rubbed off.
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