been a source of astonishment to us to find that, after so many hours of
constant and violent thumping, both the vessels were nearly as tight as
they were before the gale. We can only ascribe this to the admirable
manner in which they had been fortified for the service, and to our
having their holds so stowed as to form a solid mass throughout.



FALL OF THE ROSSBERG.

The summer of 1806 had been very rainy; and on the first and second of
September it rained incessantly. New crevices were observed in the flank
of the mountain; a sort of cracking noise was heard internally; stones
started out of the ground; detached fragments of rocks rolled down the
mountain. At two o'clock in the afternoon, on the 2d of September, a
large rock became loose, and in falling, raised a cloud of black dust.
Toward the lower part of the mountain, the ground seemed pressed down
from above; and, when a stick or a spade was driven in, it moved of
itself. A man who had been digging in his garden ran away, from fright
at these extraordinary appearances; soon a fissure, larger than all the
others, was observed; insensibly, it increased: springs of water ceased
all at once to flow, the pine trees of the forest absolutely reeled;
the birds flew away screaming. A few minutes before five o'clock, the
symptoms of some mighty catastrophe became still stronger; the whole
surface of the mountain seemed to glide down, but so slowly as to afford
time to the inhabitants to go away. An old man, who had often predicted
some such disaster, was quietly smoking his pipe; when told by a young
man running by, that the mountain was in the act of falling, he rose and
looked out, but came into his house again, saying he had time to fill
another pipe. The young man, continuing to fly, was thrown down several