SAXBY’S TIDAL WAVE.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2074, 29 December 1869, Page 2

SAXBY’S TIDAL WAVE.

(From the New York Correspondent of the European Mail.) A fearful storm occurred iu America ou October 4. In Albany, and some distance westward ou the Central Railroad, trains were delayed, and culverts were washed away. The Mohawk River was ten feet above low water mark, and several breaks iu the Erie Canal occurred. On the Hudson River Railroad, the water on the track lay a foot deep. In Connecticut, a dam and machine shop at Pemberwicke were carried away, and one man crushed to death, aud nine or ten others seriously injured. The loss entailed is about 100,000 dollars. The Harlem Railroad track, north of Millerton, was washed away, and the bridge of Copake was rapidly wearing away. The Delaware was twenty feet higher than usual. A portion of the Erie Railroad track, between Port Jervis and Deposit, was washed away. The greatest damage appears to have been done at and near Philadelphia, where the wharves were submerged by the swollen Schuylkill, and lumber, coal, and even railroad cars were carried away, and stores flooded as high as the second

storey. Tne retorts in the were submerged, and a short supply* of gas for the city was threatened. The experience of July in Baltimore put the storekeepers in the submerged streets oil their guard, and the timely removal of their goods prevented much damage. In and about Washington considerable loss was sustained, and railroad trains were delayed several hours. Portions of the city were flooded, an! the inhabitants were rescued with considerable difficulty and not a little danger. Several Americans say that they had Lieutenant Saxby’s storm. Two residents of Newcastle, New Hampshire, report that they were on the beach at 10 p.m., when the tidal wave, 18ft high, rolled in. As they saw it coming they fled ; but one fell among the rocks, and clung to them, the wave going over him. It ran 125 ft above high water mark. In three minutes afterwards there was no trace of it. The tide in the Bay of Fundy, and at and near St John, New Brunswick, rose to a height never before known. Thousands of sheep and cattle were drowned, bridges were swept away, and miles of railroad track destroyed. United States papers have given lamentable accounts of the disastrous effects of the floods. New Brunswick suffered terribly by the storm. It is stated by some that damage to the amount of a million of dollars was done. At St. John, the wind from the sout-east blew A hurricane, and the rain fell in torrents. By nine o’clock at night the water in harbor had risen to the height of ordinary spring tides, although it then wanted one hour and a half to high tide ; the waves rolled in from the bay to a tremedous height, dashing over every wharf, aiid flinging the vessels against their moorings with great violence. According to one account, no such tide has visited St. John within the memory of man. The tide began to recede about 10.30, and as it fell the wind lulled. In Eastport, Maine, the storm assumed the force of a hurricane, and half a million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed. Twenty-seven vessels were driven ashore in Rumney’s Bay. The tide in the Bay of Fundy was enormous. Many important lumber dams in the Kennebec were carried away. In Connecticut the great cotton mills of Higganum we e destroyed, and several houses in Glastonbury. In New York, the Mohawk river rose ten feet above low water mark, and the valley of the Hudson suffered severely. At Hoosick Falls the flood swept away a railway train in motion, and three lives were lost. Many millions of money have been lost, and a large but at present unascertained number of lives. The Home News says Heavy gales, which lasted from Saturday Oct. 16th, until Tuesday, Oct. 19, have done much damage in the north and north-eastern parts of the country, and several of the Scotch rivers were flooded. At Aberdeen the hurricane is described as one of the severest that have visited the northern counties. The wind was accompanied with a heavy fall of rain in the lowlands, and suow in the higher grounds. It was with great difficulty that people could move on the streets of Aberdeen. The river Dee overflowed its banks in mmy places, and inundated numerous low-lying fields along its course. The fine fertile haugh land on the hanks of the Don about Kinaldie, Kiutore, and Inverurie was covered to an alarming extent. The Ury, a tributary of the Don, between Inveramsy Junction and its confluence with the latter, spread over a great deal of cultivated soil. The Bogie came down very heavily, and the smaller streams in the Huntly district soon increased to the dimensions and surpassed the turbulence of an ordinary Spey. For some miles above Keith the Isla was flooded to a considerable depth, and at the Keith railway station a splendid field of turnips was suddenly converted into a lake. Between Keith and Grange, as well as on to Eothiemay, where the Isla joins the Deveron, much arable laud was under water. Between Ballindalloch and the sea the Spey overflowed its banks. The Avon, which joins it at Bellindalloch, was very full, and did much damage to land, embankments, and foot bridges. As the schooner Mary of Aberdeen was running into Shields harbor she touched the rocks on the edge of the Black Middens, and did some injury to the rudder. The result was that the ship became unmanageable, and ran amongst the rocks on the north side of the river, where she grounded. A large screw steamer, supposed to be the John Liddle, which sailed from Sunderland with coals, for Hamburg, had her decks swept. The brig Triune, of London, for Sunderland, was driven on shore between Sunderland and the village of Holmpton, and became a total wreck. At North Berwick and Dunbar the storm was severely felt. At Berwick two vessels were driven upon the rocks, but the crews were got off in the lifeboat of the station. Another vessel was disabled off Arbroath, and had to he run ashore, the crew being rescued by the coastguardsmen. In Aberdeenshire great damage was done by the overflowing the rivers and burns. Wrecks are reported as having taken place near Fraserburgh ; a terrific storm of wind and rain broke over Banff. The John, of Tain, was lost at Saltburn. The Vesper, of Hartlepool, bound to that port from Gefle, Sweden, went ashore on Tees Breakwater, and the master and one of the crew were lost. An Italian vessel, the Alabama, laden with coal, from Shields to Genoa, drove ashore off Dungeness Point, and became a total wreck. A large full-rigged ship, of about 1000 tons burthen, was driven ashore with great violence on the Goodwin Sands ; II of her crew were lost and 10 were saved. A large schooner was seen to sink, having struck on a bank off the mouth of the Mersey. A number of smaller craft have been lost or disabled. The sea made complete breaches over the entire length of the piers of Tyne Harbor. A Prussian brig, the Mauritz Reikenheim, of Zengst, Captain Sclutt, was wrecked near Shields, whither she was bound. The great tidal wave washed into Newbigger. The schooner Mary, of Aberdeen, sank in the Tyne.