After heavy showers, the surface drainage finds its way into the reservoirs, carrying with it the detritus of all the accumulated filth of the last year or two, and adding an infusion of human bodies, in all stages of decomposition.
"A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia With Some Account of the Late Emperor Theodore, His Country and People"
Henry Blanc
The water contains common salt, sulphates of magnesia and soda, and carbonate of lime, and rises in a deep valley at the junction of granite and lias, which is, however, concealed for some way by an immense mass of detritus, through which the spring forces itself.
"The South of France--East Half"
Charles Bertram Black
I could with difficulty, and only by the aid of a chisel, procure chips of rock from its surface, and therefore could not ascertain how much of it is formed by the aggregation of detritus, and how much by the outward growth of mounds of corals, similar to those now living on the margin.
"Coral-Reefs"
Darwin, Charles