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The consequence is that the water is thus descending wears away
the earth and thus "Water is nature's vehicle." The [rocks?] are broken
and crumbled by the frost the water percolates through the rocks,
expands on freezing and breaks them and water charged with
[mind?] washes the banks as in the case of the Mississippi and in doing
so it uundermines huge trees and these forming [swamps?].
The Table Rack at Niagara fell from this expansion of ice
in the [crevices?]. At Mt Blanc (where snow falls 9 months) thus in
the [deep?] raining there accumulates a great amount of snow and [rocks?]
at last having no base [?] being melted the mass slides down forming
a glacier. [Caft?] [Scoresly?] stated that between [lat?] 69 degrees and 90 degrees there were
icebergs 2500 in number some of them weighing 100,000 tons about a
mile in circumference and 300 or 600 feet high. In this town (Alexandria)
there are persons living who recollect when the waters of the Potomac reached
that part of King Street where the Marshall house now stands. In
France and England are found springs containing [carbonade?] of
lime or [travertine?] when it incrust a stich; they are silicious springs
found in the Azores, the Geysirs in Iceland these contain silica
which is easier sissolved by nature than by the [chemist?]; In the
Island of Trinidad and Burham empire there are vast springs
asphaltum or mineral [pitch?], which is a great article of commerce.
The river Rhone passes through lake Geneva thus defrosting
[mounds?] at the mouth of the lake until Port Valais is now 1 1/2 miles
from the river. In the Northern front of ['Itialy the Po"?] has changed
its [bed] several times it deposits so much in the bottom that they
have to raise the banks six inches each year to confine it such
is the case with the Mississippi. The effect is to fill up the
mouth form a delta from [creek?] [letter s?]. One branch of the
Rhine has no mouth being filled up. The Nile appears to be
the remains of a lake as it is justly sand that Egypt is the [gift?] of the