One of the most extraordinary subsidences, which was described in _Chambers’s Journal_, occurred in Dunkirk, on the outskirts of Northwich, in December, 1880. The earliest intimation of impending disturbance on an unusual scale was a rumbling subterranean noise, the violent bubbling of the water in all the surrounding pools, and the uprushing of air and foul gas through rifts which its passage tore in the ground. It was quickly discovered that Wincham Brook, a channel of water nearly 20 ft. in width, had broken into the earth about 1,000 ft. from its entrance into the Top of the Brook, and the uprush of air from the old mines, was caused by the force of the descending waters. A series of alarming, but comparatively small, subterranean displacements caused extensive rifts in the ground about Ashton Salt-works, and these were followed by a sudden explosion in a neighbouring pool, which ejected a geyser of mud and water some 30 ft. into the air. In the ruin that ensued, stacks of timber, an engine and boiler, a salt pan, and other material disappeared into the gaping earth, and a massive chimney stack, some 90 ft. high and 9 ft. square at the base, tilted towards the centre of subsidence and collapsed with a terrible crash. Scarcely had this subsidence ceased, says the writer in _Chambers’s Journal_, “when an enormous sinking of the whole of Ashton’s Old Rock Pit Hole and the surrounding land, for an area of over five hundred feet in diameter, took place, leaving two very deep holes. The land was riven and cracked all round, and fell in steps of two feet. Over ten thousand tons of water went down into the subterranean cavities. A huge brine cistern was riven in two, and the brine all lost; and two large brick kilns cut completely in halves, and the bricks scattered about. The whole surface of the Weaver and the Top of the Brook was lowered fully a foot over one hundred and sixty acres in about four hours; and if we add to this the whole of the water of the Wincham Brook for twelve hours, we shall find, on a careful computation, that not less than six hundred thousand tons of water rushed below.” From the time of the “Great Subsidence,” as this event is described, the sinking has been continuous throughout the locality. In some places meadows have been converted into swamps, roads have sunk fully 30 ft. below their original level, and small brooks have become lakes of many acres in extent; sunken and distorted fences, roads, and streams are common objects of the country-side, the tenure of pastoral lands is precarious, and property is valueless for building purposes; and nothing but its inexhaustible reserves of brine saves the district from abandonment as a place accursed.