GREAT INUNDATION AT MONTREAL, CANADA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVI, Issue 912, 7 August 1861, Page 2

GREAT INUNDATION AT MONTREAL, CANADA.

Montreal lias recently suffered calamity. The lower part nf ♦ * te,,ri,»le been flooded by a sudden and etl™? rise of the St. Lawrence, causingZ? "^ ing and a loss of property greater Suft <-'>- than that occasioned by the a-mtA ll Is sai «l. 1852. On Sunday, the U&T *£_**& before daylight, the ice in the river . Utle and commenced * sbovino*' Th a ke UP dually all day; by the aft^* «* apparent that tlie ice was solidly uZI i Was tbe city, and that there would be 1 cl °* flood. During the day Lake St. VvLIT^ 1 up, and sent down an enormous nr ! roke compact ice in large fields- th,* o c,? Unt of harbour, and blocked up the' whl the far as tbe foot of the island Montreal T"- as heavily on Lonpeuil, on Boucherville ir*!? and on the shallows below. During- i> ■ » noon the water rose slowly hm- «f» "ea{terrose with great rapidity. ' Th e 111 the large population o\ the fc^ 1 Griflm town was pitiable. Hund H °f had been absent from home, visiti„Jr ho parts of the city, found themsell V^l from their families, and in a melancholy ,5 of uncertainty as to their fate. Tho J* l immediate district who had not esca'Y once were driven to the upper stories rf a buildings, and in many cases the Wa Jl up the floors of the upper steril^f and p lg s were drowned in great numbers IS many persons were rescued with _i-J t aI culty from their perilous position A S" night tbe rise of the water was anmJd I I towards daylight the flood incrS 'bu] before eight o'clock was •"ftf^S height. From the barracks- belo°w £ Honsecours market the water had ' above the revetment wall, filling t j, e i" seu stories, of all the warehouses on the city fi and rising as high as the level of St Pn? street, a little east of Custom House'™™? I hence eastward the land falls eradLl At M'Gill street tbe water ran at the W ' f Lemome street; St. Antoine street was fl 0 od«f for a long distance, and Craig street on both sides of the Haymarket; even the Bonaveature Building, nearly on the level of Great St. James street, had three fret of water in the cellar. Westward the flood rolled an unbroken stream over the whole of Griffin town and the lower part of the St Antoine Ward; in the College Garden, surrounded by high walls, the water was over ten feet deen the raclosures forming too great reservoir* oi docks; the Lachine Railway track was several feet under water, the ties floated up and rendered the line useless. Away, as far as the old race course was one great lake, in places fifteen feet deep, with here and there an oasis of a rising ground. The flood extended west as tar as the Tanneries; south of St, Jospph street on the river all was under water, north of that line the cellars were flooded, as they were also north of a large portion ot Crai street. While the greatest misery was su£ fered in the lower parts of the Griffin town, where the inhabitants were shut up in the upper stories of the houses, the largest losses were, of course, in the warehouses and stores near the canal, on Commissioners and Paul streets, and the side streets adjoining. The Mayor and Corporation took immediate steps to succour the distress in the flooded district; it was navigated with boats, canoes, and rafts, and bread and fuel were conveyed to the poor. — Home JVews.