Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the Charmouth Cliff, but exhibiting a more advanced state of decomposition; yet bearing a much stronger and closer affinity to the Kimeridge Coal, and indeed may be fairly considered as the connecting link between them. This stone, which is used as an article of fuel by the neigbouring poor, is inflammable, and of a strong bituminous and sulphureous nature; it burns free, and produces a very brilliant light, but emits at first, and until the gaseous particles are all evaporated, a very offensive smell;-it afterwards continues to burn for a long time pleasantly, and notwithstanding the disagreeable effluvia arising from its first igniting, it does not appear that any injurious effect has ever attended the use of it. It does not burn entirely to ashes, but leaves a substance like burnt slate, which is, after a time, reduced to powder, on being subjected to the action of the atmosphere. It is worthy of remark, that blocks of this stone, which have been exposed to, and washed by, the salt water, burn better than what is recently taken from the Cliff.

The soil contains Pyrites, Marcasite, Cornu Ammonis, with remains of other shells and Belemnites. These substances are not found in regular strata, but are interspersed in masses, through the soil, which is impreg nated, more or less, with bitumen, to an uncertain depth. There are occasionally found pieces of a darker substance of stone, resembling charcoal, but much harder.

About twelve years since, that portion of the Cliff which has lately attracted so much of public curiosity, was observed to change its appearance, and a quantity of ground, about an acre and half in extent, gradually sunk about thirty feet below its former level, in a direction towards the sea, and remained there for a short period; on this detached piece of ground there was a cottage, inhabited by a fisherman (named Baggs) and his family, who prudently left it after perceiving the first symptom of an alteration; however the cottage remained, with the exception of a slight crack in one of the walls, perfectly entire. Sometime afterwards this piece of ground made a further gradual slide in the same direction, carrying the cottage with it, without any additional injury; and during a period of nearly three years from its first removal, it occa

sionally continued its sinking progress downwards, to the extent of nearly five hundred feet, when it made a stand; exhibiting the entire cottage, with its accompanying garden, well stocked with gooseberry and currant trees, and various vegetables, all in the most flourishing condition, and still retaining its position. The cottage has been lately taken down, the materials being removed by its former occupier, to build him another habitation on a spot near, but presumed more secure and apparently less liable to a similar disaster. The fruit trees and vegetables continued in an equally thriving condition, until the late eruption, but now the numerous trespassing visitors have nearly obliterated every vestige of so remarkable an occurrence.

As portions of the Cliff along the whole extent of this coast are constantly falling down, particularly after heavy rains and breaking up of frost, this slide, as it is called, did not at the time excite any particular notice, although so extensive, but was looked on as merely an incident natural to the peculiarity of the soil;-nor was there any thing, for some time, after this detached portion of Cliff had become stationary, which caused any remark, until about five years ago, a vapour was observed to exhale from that side of it, facing the sea, and the same appearance has occurred occasionally since, at irregular intervals, particularly after heavy rains, varying materially in extent and also as to locality. It has been noticed, that the vapour has been more offensive, and has issued from the interstices in much larger quantities, at the spring tides, than at other times: -but that the greatest effusion of smoke has occurred about the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes.

In the months of September and October 1826, a very considerable portion of vapour was, for the first time, observed to rise from two or three apertures, on the summit of this Cliff, and continued to issue therefrom for some time, until fissures were opened

To persons unacquainted with the nature of the tides, and unaccustomed to naumeaning of spring tides:—it is the flux of tical terms, it is necessary to explain the the ocean, which regularly occurs at the New and Full Moon, when the attractive power of that planet causes the tide to rise or spring to a much greater height than at other periods.

by its contending strength, in the side of it, large enough to permit its escaping in that direction. The quantity exhaling from the summit, was (to use the language of an eye-witness) as much, as is usually caused, and passes out of a chimney, at the first lighting of a common fire. On a calm day it has been seen to rise in a majestic column to the height of twenty feet, and had a very curious and imposing effect, in such a situation: since the vapour has forced down a portion of the Cliff, and found an uninterrupted passage through the fissures thus opened, it has, with scarce any intermission, continued to exhale, only varying as before mentioned, in the number of apertures, from four to ten, and in the space of ground over which they are extended.

On the 15th of March, 1827, Nicholas Baggs observed the vapour aris. ing from the side of the Cliff, to be in larger quantities than usual at that spot, and having occasion for fuel, curiosity urged him to direct the persons he employed for the purpose, to dig at that part; after removing a small portion of the surface, they were very much surprised at seeing fire, and what at first sight seemed to them a small flame. The appearance of flame was momentary-it died away almost as soon as it became visible, and there has not been the least semblance of flame since, except on the application of some combustible material, to either of the fissures in the rock, in which the fire was perceptible, which immediately ignited. Dry sticks, or any inflamable substance, would, on being thrust into any of the apertures from whence smoke issued, instantly kindle and produce flame, and remain burning as long as fed with such matter; but as soon as the substance so applied was consumed, the flame would invariably die away instantly. It is necessary to state, in consequence of the multiplicity of idle reports of a contrary tendency, that there never has been the least flame issuing spontaneously from any part of the Cliff, since the first appearance of fire.

The apertures from whence the vapour or smoke issue, are about forty feet above high water mark; the appearances within the interstices of the rock, at the depth of five or six feet, were very similar to that of the lower

part of a lime kiln, in its most active progress of operation. The massy blocks of stone on fire, displayed at first sight a most vivid and somewhat awful appearance; throwing out a very intense heat, accompanied with a powerful sulphureous effluvia, highly oppressive, so much so, as to cause a visible effect on the respiration of those persons who remained any length of time within its influence.

This interesting appearance was visible five or six days, and would probably have remained so much longer, but the unadvised curiosity of the learned as well as the unlearned, eager to dive into the secret workings of nature, induced them to apply crow-bars, pickaxes, and other powerful implements, for removing the surface, as well as portions of the rock, any way offering an obstacle, in order to ascertain (as they imagined) the cause of this wonderful phenomenon; which, after all their efforts, proved fruitless; Nature, in her operations, being too subtle and impenetrable for human ingenuity to develope her designs. The consequence is that, owing to the quantity of rock and soil removed from the principal apertures, a very large portion of the upper part of the Cliff, being partially undermined, has fallen down, and buried the precise spot that first excited so large a share of curiosity; and, although the quantity of vapour now issuing is not so profuse as originally, still the exhalation is considerable, and emits a very powerful effluvia from three apertures, which proves how vast a mass of fire exists, mouldering be neath this heap, feeding on the perishable mementos of a former world. The outward surface of the rock, at thi part of the Cliff, is very hot, as wel the soil around the apertures, ard small fragments of the stone retair a very considerable degree of heat fo a long time, after being detached føm the larger blocks.

The ground shakes with a trifing and sudden pressure of the foot, and even by a blow with a stick, which evidently proves the internal recesses of this mass of earth to be hollow, and of course dangerous to a certain degree. It is very probable, that at some uture period, perhaps not very distar, after the partial consumption of the mate rials feeding this immense boy of fire, the present crust or surfac may sink down, and exhibit all th incidental

peculiarities of an extinct volcano; or possibly astonish us, with the more awful characteristics of an existing one, in active operation.

Previous to the disruption of this portion of Cliff from its neighbouring soil, there was a spring of excellent water, constantly bubbling out a copious chrystalline stream, but which this convulsion entirely suppressed. A little water now oozes out from another part of the adjoining cliff, and immediately hides itself amongst the soil, being as it were ashamed of its insig nificance. About one hundred feet from the summit of this disjointed Cliff, where the exhalation issued last August, there is in a hollow formed by its separation from its former site, a pond of stagnant water, abounding with the common Water Lizard.

There are not at this time any indications that will warrant the expectation of a violent eruption, nor are the peculiar local properties of the soil of such a description as to excite any alarming apprehension. After a time, it is very probable the vapour may partially subside, till another convulsive effort of nature may shew the wondering visitor the astonishing working of her hidden and inexplicable machinery. That there is an extensive body of subterraneous fire accumulated here, is too evident to be doubted; the least casual observer cannot justly draw any other conclusion from even a superficial view, and it is to be hoped that the mighty operations in constant progress underneath will never meet a resisting impediment to a ready vent upwards, for the free discharge of its increasing and superabundant effluvia.

The Slide before alluded to, which

happened in the year 1816, was unquestionably caused by the operation d subterraneous fire, being the first vsible effect of the impulse upwards, pnduced in consequence of its having ma with an obstruction to a free conduding channel beneath, and which proportionably increased the force of that dreadful element.

being ascertained that the Cliff contins a mixture of pyrites, sulphur, and iron-ore, the effect to be produced on such a combination of materials by the acion of salt water, must be precisely that which has happened. There are instances on record of similar occurrences from the like causes, viz. in the month of August 1751, at Char

mouth in this county; and at the mouth of the river Shannon in Ireland, in the year 1753: and in the Philosophical Transactions mention is made of a like circumstance in Caernarvonshire.

There is no doubt of the communication of salt water with the interior part of this Cliff, perforating through the loose pebbles at its base, and which communication originally effected the separation and removal of this mass of earth from its former situation; as a proof of it, if proof was wanting, it it has been observed that the spring tides, and more particularly the equinoctial tides (owing to their increasing fluxes coming more immediately in

contact with these active internal agents), have invariably produced very visible effects on the discharge of vapour from this cavern; as at these periods a much larger quantity issues out, and a far stronger effluvia is emitted than at any other times.

The whole line of coast exhibits in the various strata, and numerous alluvial deposits contained in them, very remarkable features of violent convulsions; and although no record exists to inform us of the precise period of their occurrence, it is not less certain and demonstrable, that they have happened; leaving us incontestible proofs of their amazing effects in the many varied contortions of the soil, intermixed with such a vast profusion of organic remains, with other strong concurring testimonies.

Mr. URBAN,

VIATOR.

May 5.

YOUR Correspondent "SEXAGENARIUS, P. 215, might have

mentioned another instance in which the epitaph he cites is in part copied ; for he has brought it to my memory. It will be found in the church-yard of Bishop Stortford, where I copied it on 24 May, 1823: on Mary the daughter of J. and E. Clifford, aged 4 years." It has only the last stanza of the epitaph given by your Correspondent, much altered, thus:

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

"When the Archangel's trump shall sound,
And souls to bodies join,
Thousands will wish their lives on earth
Had been as short as thine."

May 1.

Mr. URBAN, HE deterioration of English poetry THE of since the days of Pope, Gray, and Goldsmith, has been observed and laBards and Scotch Reviewers" has left mented. Lord Byron's "English the circumstance on melancholy record; but it was reserved for the year 1827 to exhibit from one of the first publishing houses in London a specimen of the pitch to which the art of sinking in poetry has arrived, and to offer to an enlightened community a farrago under the imposing title of "Three Months in Ireland, by an English Protestant," which would in other days have been considered disgraceful to Grub-street. A preface of hundred and fifty pages of this little thrice-quoted quotations occupies an book. The poetry, if such it called, a small kernel in a capacious nut-shell, fills but forty pages, and an appendix of ninety pages of garbled extracts from the Parliamentary evidence on the state of Ireland in 1825, brings up he

There is more plagiarism and adaptation in sepulchral writings than in any other; and many a parish clerk is furnished with a collection from which for some small fee he deals out to the afflicted widow and to filial concern, some of those "uncouth rhymes,' which yet implore the passing tribute of a sigh!' A serene gratification is always afforded to a contemplative traveller in every church-yard, far from melancholy, and as wholly distinct from distress as it is from levity; and it is calculated to give him a moral lesson for his study, not unduly intermingled with the opportunities. presented to him in his day's journey of contemplating the glory of Divine Beneficence in the dawn which awakens him from refreshing sleep, and grants him the blessing of another glorious Sun to direct his way! While he feels renovated for his journey, receives the purity of the reviving morn, and considers that he has another day allowed him for pursuing his course, in order to obtain his temporal object, and at the same time for reflecting that it will be perhaps but a short distance before his own steps may be arrested, and his vigour and strength be mingled in the same silence which shrowds the spirits of those whose hallowed turf he had so lately reviewed!

the

rear.

may

be

The learned Selden has observed, that verses prove nothing but the quantity of syllables. These prove more, the folly of the writer's attacks upon the characters of the lords spiritual and temporal, the judges, juries, magistrates, clergy, corporations, and landed proprietors of Ireland. They moreover prove the author's intellectual capacity, and the lowness of the sphere in which he has been educated, if we may judge from the following and many other such lines of his crude performance:

"Such is the present Bishop, let him pass,
And notice what his predecessor was,
Fortune on him a double rank conferred,
Of Derry Bishop, and of Bristol Lord."

In fact, death is so certain, that it admits of very little variation in the study of it, and most mortals necessarily think of it with similar sentiments. Thus it is that the beauties of expression may vary the representation, but they can add little or nothing to the experience of which we are posThe author's pronunciation of the sessed. The green turf that covers the words "was" and "lord," may be asremains of the humble cottager, differs certained from these lines, and with but in quality and ornament from the splendour of masonry which enshrine many other such, may indicate that his the great; for the same bell has tolled conversation would be little less disthe knell, and the same dust has quali-Three Months in Ireland," which gusting than his verses. fied them both for the same grave! is neither a tour nor a diary, nor a philosophical tract, might be safely suffered to descend into the tomb of all the Capulets, and migrate quietly to the trunk-liners and other purchasers of waste paper, were it not that the repetition of such calumnies as it contains requires that they should be as A. H. repeatedly contradicted, situated as the

Mors aquo pulsat pede !-The church-yard of Sittingbourne will furnish the lesson in common language which all ranks can comprehend:

"As once we were so you must be, Therefore prepare to follow we." Yours, &c.

In fact the

affairs of Ireland are at the present crisis, and likely as we are to be overwhelmed by the united aggressions of force and fraud.-" Calumniare fortiter et aliquid adhærebit" seems to be the appropriate motto of these slanderous scribblers, and if calumny is like the dirt of Paris, more or less indelible, it behoves the friends of truth and liberty to be vigilant in contradicting and exposing it.

Ireland and the Christian cause connected with the British interest in it have indeed suffered severely for much more than a century back from the misrepresentation of interested persons in Great Britain. During Lord Tyrconnel's intolerant administration in 1687 and 1688, the people of England were grossly deceived by reports every where circulated among them of the great mildness of that cruel Viceroy's government, and to such a pitch was this wicked delusion carried in Scotland in 1689, that Sir Daniel M'Daniel, who arrived in Dublin towards the end of that year with several gentlemen of the episcopal church from the Isles of Orkney, declared that their ministers had assured them that the Protestants of Ireland enjoyed under King James's Government the greatest freedom, quiet, and security, both as to their religion and property; Similar delusions have been effected from time to time respecting the state of Ireland within the last fifty years, in the course of which an alternation of concession and repulsion has produced one rebellion and several insurrections, leaving this island, as to its connexion with the rest of the realm, in as precarious state, as it was in the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This may serve as the only apology which can be offered for thus noticing a publication in which such lines as the following appear:

"To her charm'd eyes all honours deck her

[blocks in formation]

not hope from verse, the native land of the pseudo English Protestant.

To defend the Bishops of the Church established in Ireland from such an assailant, would be an idle task, although an easy one; it would at once incur the displeasure of the prelates, and the imputation of flattery; but no such objection lies against shielding the defenceless from the cowardly, or covering the grave of the dead lion from the claw of the living jackal; and therefore it is impossible to refrain from expressing the most decided reprobation of the vile attack made upon the memory of the late Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry in this volume. It suits not the design of this brief article to enter into any vindication of the departed nobleman's character;like that of most men, it had its bright side and dark shades; but it may be right to observe, that there was a day, and that not very distant from the sent day, when the author or the vender of such a book as this would have been shut out from society, and perhaps hunted like a mad dog out of the province of Ulster. With regard to the late Earl of Bristol,

We seek not now his merits to disclose,

pre

Or draw his frailties from their dread

abode, There they alike in trembling hope repose, The bosom of his Father and his Crod.

Such is "Three Months in Ireland!" Is the cause strong which must be maintained by such instruments? Is the Protestant interest in Ireland to be put down by such wretched men and his savage employers?

The Appendix consists of garbled portions of the evidence on Irish affairs given before the Legislature. In this Mr. O'Connell is reported to have sworn that "the members of the Church of Rome would revolt extremely at the idea of their Clergy getting any share of the tithes in Ireland;" aud Dr. Doyle is stated to have deposed upon oath, that "when he was obliged to spend his last shilling in support of the famishing neighbourhood, he was made to pay tithe!!!" The Doctor, generous soul, is one of those who, it

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »