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Show FLOOD OF TilE ·A NIO A. T TIVOLt, 196 0 0 to be charged with as large a minin"' houses, and contmumg l fluid could hold in sus- quant~it y of earthy matter as t Je pension * . ca in()' from the lake, inter~ixed with The waters, on es p o £ the first four miles, at the mud and rock, swept al?ng, or1 . and Mr. Escher, the rate of above t wen ty miles1 anf l Jodu fru' rnished three h un d re d en()'ineer, calculated that t Je oo ond -an efflux which is b b' £ t of water every sec ' 1 N thousand cu IC ee f tl Rhine below Bas e. ow, five times greater than that o b lC . gradually drained off, the f 1 l ke had not een • 1 t if part o t Je a earl double, approaching l.n vo ume o flood would have been n ! 1 ld 1 t is evident, t.here- 1 t rivers m tJe wor · · .c some of the arges 1 t' "' on the excavatmg !Orce h are specu a mo · 1 fore that w en we h xerted in any particu ar ' . ter may ave e f 1 which runmng wa t' on is not the volume o t le h t important ques 1 • 1 1 valley' t e mos resent levels of the nver-c Jan~e' existing stream, nor the t b t tl probability of a successlOn nor the size of the grave: u l Jet. me when some of the land riod smce t Je 1 f of floods, at some pe first elevated above the bosom o in question may have been the sea. . 6 vVe shall conclude with one mOt·e Flood at ~ivolt, 189la iand of classic recollections, the ~ncient example, deriv~d fr~7 all the other inundations to wluch ~ve Tibur, and which, He d 'th' the present century. 1he have allude.d , oc.c urr·en WI m b ed describes a flood on be remem er , . h younger Plmy' It WI d d rocks and houses, wit the Anio, which destroyed" ' OO sl, f ~rt t For four or illas an wor <.s o . the most s~mptuous v. 1 this headlong stream, as Horace five centunes consecutive y, . d 'tl. its bounds, and then, truly called it, has often remame w~.;m nt periods inundated after such long intervals of res.t, at 1 I e7 The last of these its banks again, and wideneld lNts c Ja;;;6 after heavy rains, 1 h ned 15t 1 ov. ' S tl d catastrop Jes appe ds before alluded to in co. an . . such as produced the floo been impeded by an artificial The waters appear also to have d and was witness to the sweep* I visited this valley four months ~f~er;:~ ~~~t ~f a house. The gtente~ pn~ ' in away of a bridge, and the u~<lermmm tin,. a vertical cliff, one hunclre .nn olthe ice-barrier was then standmg. pr;s~~na ~r Auvel·gnc, intersected by n mer, fifty 11' l'e t 1u. gh ' like the lava-currents o t Lib. viii., Epist. 17. FLOOD OF THE ANIO AT TIVOLI. 197 dike, by which they were separated into two parts, a short distance above Tivoli. They broke through this dike, and, leaving the left trench dry, precipitated themselves, with their whole weight, on the right side. Here they undermined, in the course of a few hours, a high cliff, and widened the river's channel about fifteen paces. On this height stood the church of St. Lucia, and about thirty-six houses of the town of Tivoli, which were all carried away, presenting, as they sank into the roaring flood, a terrific scene of destruction to the spectators on the opposite bank*. As the foundations were gmdually removed, each building, some of them edifices of considerable height, was first traversed with numerous rents, which soon widened into large fissures, until at length the roofs fell in with a crash, and then the walls sank into the river, and were hurled down the cataract below. The destroying agency of the flood came within two hundred yards of the precipice on which the beautiful temple of Vesta stands; but fortunately this precious relic of antiquity was spared, while the wreck of modern structures was hurled down the abyss. Vesta, it will be remembered, in the heathen mythology, personified the stability of the earth ; and when the Samian astronomer, Aristarchus, first taught that the earth revolved on its axis, and round the sun, he was publicly accused of impiety, "for moving the everlasting Vesta from her place." PJayfairt observed, that when Hutton ascribed instability to the earth's surface, and represented the continents which we inhabit as the theatre of incessant change and movement, his antagonists, who regarded them as unalterable, assailed him, in a similar manner, with accusations founded on religious prejudices. vVe might appeal to the excavating power of the Anio as corroborative of one of the most controverted parts of the Huttonian theory; and if the days of omens had not gone by, the geologists who now worship Vesta might regard the late catastrophe as portentous. We may, at least, recommend the modern votaries of the goddess to lose no time in making a pilgrimage to her shrine, for the next flood may not respect the tern plc. eve*n tW. hen at Tivoli, in 1829, I received this account from eye-witnesses of the t lllustr. of Hutt, Theory,§ 3, p. 147, |