The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-14 00:00:00

IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

DR. ROBERTS' POOR MAN'S FRIEND
is confidently recommended to the Public as an unfail-
ing remedy for wounds of every description, burns, scalds,
chilblains, scorbutic eruptions, sore and inflamed eyes, &c.
Sold in pots. ls. lid., 2s. 9d„ Its., and 225. each. Also his
PILULE AN riscßopnuLx, confirmed by sixty years'
experience to be one of the best alterative medicines ever
offered to the public. They form a mild and superior Family
Aperient, that may be taken at all times without confine-
ment or change of diet. Sold in boxes, ls. lid., 25. 9d., 45. 6d.,
is., and 225. each.
Sold wholesale by the proprietorq, Beach and Barnicott,
Bridport, by the London houses, and retail by all respectable
medicine vendors in the United Kingdom and Colonies.

TEETH.—Mr. ESKELL'S INVENTION in
the construction of ARTIFICIAL TEETH has the
following anvantages :—A set or teeth, of excellent work-
manship and mechanism, can be made and fitted with the
most perfect accuracy and success, in a few hours, without
pain or extraction of stumps, and to answer all the purposes
of mastication and articulation. They are fitted without
wires or fastenings, and adapt themselves so perfectly to the
gums, that they arc quite immoveable, except at the option
of the wearer. Invalids or residents in the country can ad-
just these teeth to many changes of the mouth without the
aid of a dentist. They are not so iiable to injury, are always
useful, and will last a lifetime. Comfort guaranteed. Trea-
tise explaining Air. Eskell's Patent Am, free for 7 stamps.
Inspection of specimens and consultations tree.-B,Grosvenor-
street, Bond-street, W and at 39, Bennett'o-hill, Bir-
mingham.

DR. SCOTT'S BILIOUS AND LIVER
PILLS.—A NEVER FAILING REMEDY.—Pre-
,,ared without any mercurial ingredient, from the recipe of Dr.
-cott, of Bromic; Kent, will be found invaluable to all who
uffer from bilious and liver complaints, indigestion, wind,
+palm®, giddiness, dizziness of the eyes, &o. For habitual
costiveness, as a family aperient medicine, and as a purifier
of the blood, they are truly excellent ; mild in their opera-
tion and grateful to the stomach, they create appetite, pro-
mote digestion, and strengthen the whole nervous system.
Sold by W. Lambert, 8, King William-street, Charing-cross.
London, and by mast druggists, in boxes,ls. lid., and three
times the quantity in one, 2s. 9d. Be sure to ask for Dr.
Scott's Bilious anC Liver Pills. The genuine are a square
green package, with " William Lambert," engraved on the
stamp.

TERRIBLE CALAMITY AT SHEFFIELD.

TWO HUNDRED LIVES LOST.

At a little before midnight on Friday last one of
these terrific disasters to which nearly all the great
towns in the north of England are now more or less
exposed happened at Sheffield. The great reser-
voir of the Sheffield Water Company—a reservoir
nearly 100 acres in extent, and which held more
than a million cubic feet of water, suddenly burst
its embankment and swept with the fury of another
deluge down the narrow gorge formed by the Lox-
ley and Stannington Hills into Sheffield itself.
Almost before warning could be given the volume
of waters began rushing headlong down the valley,
sweeping farms and houses, forges and factories,
like chaff before it. Never, probably, before has
an accident of the same kind occurred so ruinous
in its wholesale destructio❑ of property, so la-
mentably fatal in the loss of human life. What-
ever the sudden and tremendous flood could
reach it seems to have destroyed, and, calculating
only by the number of houses swept away and the
persons missing who were known to have been in
them on the fatal night, there is every reason to
fear that the lives sacrificed by this awful calamity
will not be less than 200, if they do not unfortu-
nately exceed even that number. Of the damage
done to property it is impossible at this early date
to form even a conjecture. Tho devastation in this
respect is unparalleled. A large, populous, and
thriving district has been almost obliterated from
the earth, scarce more than traces of the houses
and factories that once stood there now remaining.
Those who are acquainted with the neighbour-
hood of Sheffield know that at a considerable ele-
vation above the town, on the little Matlock side,
in the nook where the Loxley and Stannington Hills
join, the great reservoirs of the Sheffield Water Com-
pany are placed. In this part of the country, between
five and six miles from Sheffield, the reservoirs form
such picturesque accessories to the surrounding hills
that no one who hes seen them will easily forget
them, while, on the other hand, those who have
once seen them will understand at the very men-
tion of their name how destructive must have been
their bursting into the steep valley which they
overlooked, and which led direct into the lower
parts of Sheffield.

The Bradfield reservoir which gave way
so fatally
was of immense length, though narrow in width,
and would hold 114,000,000 cubic feet of water
when it was full ; but it is said it was not quite full
on Friday. Ominous reports had been current as to
the state of the embankment, which is of enormous
depth and thickness, and was thought to be of com-
mensurate strength. Its appearance of massive
solidity was, however, belied by the facts. About
9 on Friday night, after the engineers in charge had
!eft, a farm labourer, crossing the embankment as a
short cut across the valley, noticed a crack in it.
He at once gave an alarm, and ran down the valley
to recall the engineers (Mr. Gunson and another
gentleman), and he succeeded in overtaking them.
They returned, but thought the crack of little im-
portance; other signs pre-
sentedport a n cteh
attempted to blow up a
weir that crossed the dam at one end, in order to
allow the water to escape. While the men were
eminsealvsehso,ratntdimtehey
engaged
charge,and crossed it. Mr.
Mr. Gunson and his
companion
wlaeynitngtothte fissure
he
Gunson had scarcely got clear, when the fissure
i n
widened to a tremendous crevasse, and a portion of
the embankment, 110 yards long by 70 feet deep,
gave way at once, and the " world of water" rushed
with a prodigious roar, into the valley below. The
enormous mass burst down the hillsides with a din
like the heaviest thunder, and the unhappy cottiers
in the valley were drowned instantaneously in their
houses, from which they had not the slightest chance
of escape. _ _

The full fury of the flood spent itself on the dis-
trict lying between the junction of the Loxley and
the Rivelin and the Neepsend bridge. The scene
that Opposed the course of
Solid and sub-
workshops,
sotfandteiveasi tahteiiolndiethgee,re is awful.
rows of houses,
bridges, everythirg
the flood, yielded before its overwhelming might.
mighty rush of
tAllhe were
waters, w h e 1
Butme d
thebeneath l
ethe
e 8 e f
property, incal-
culable as it is at present, sinks into insignifi-
cance when compared with the awful loss of human
life Persons who are familiar with the district
will know that between Hillsborough-bridge and
Malin-bridge there stood several long rows of cot-
tage houses, inhabited by the workmen of the mills
and forges on the adjacent streams with their fami-
lies. With a few exceptions the flood has wholly
demolished all these rows of dwellings. In many
instances even their foundations are obliterated.
Standing at the junction of the Loxley and the
Rivelin are only a few scattered houses, the walls
and windows burst in by the flood, standing to
mark the site of the once populous village. The
enormous volume of water debouching from the
gorge at the foot of Loxley valley seems to have
divided itself into two streams, which swept with
resistless force over the hamlets of Malin-bridge
and Hillsborough. The bridges that formerly
crossed the stream have been swept away to their
foundation stones, and the districts whioh the

streams divide are separated by a rushing torrent
of water, which had not subsided even on Satur-
day. Turning towards Sheffield and cemmoncing
a brief exploration of the ruins showed that the
tidings of disaster failed to represent the full ex-
tent of the dreadful catastrophe. Whole families
were swept away with their dwellings, and not a
trace remained of the thriving and industrious arti-
sans who sought their beds on Friday night, uncon-
scious of the dreadful fate that has so suddenly be-
fallen them.

A forge upon a headland near the junction of the two
streams was evrept away with all its heavy machinery, and
two men who were working at the hammers were among
the first victims. The volume of water there seems to have
entirely swept away one row of cottages, and destroyed the
back wall of another row, leaving only the front wall and
some portions of the flooring in a precarious state. Among
the first of the houses that fell was the Stag public-house
kept by a person named Armitage. The family numbered
11 persons, and they are all drowned. On the headland
above named was a farm house inhabited by a family named
Trickett. The house was swept away with all its occupants,
who are stated to have numbered 10 or 11 persons. The farm
premises with 14 mulch cows were carried away by the flood.
Not a vestige of the homestead remains. Near to the house
lived a Mr. Price, a shopkeeper, whose household, including
his son and daughter.in-law, numbered six persons, all of
whom are drowned. It is said that In this row of houses
there was a woman who had been but two days confined.
The infant was washed out of her arras and the mother was
found dead in the road among part of the ruins. In one of
the detached houses near this row lived a family named
Spooner. With them lived an old man, 74 years of age,
named William Wostenholm, the father of Mrs. Spooner.
There were ten in the family, and not one of them sur-
vives. Near the spot on Saturday was a little boy, a grand-
son of Wostenholm, who was weeping bitterly and seeking
in vain to discover even a vestige of the house where his
relatives had lived. The next row of houses, called Bower's
buildings, are very strongly built, and, though they are
greatly injured, they have been saved from utter destruc-
tion. But the condition of the walls of many of the houses
testifies to the force with which the water dashed past. In
some instances the inmates, who were, of course, in bed,
were compelled to remain in the upper rooms for several
hours before they could be released. One of the houses
destroyed was occupied by a man named Cropper and his
wife and two children. They were all drowned, and their
bodies swept away. Near to their house was one occupied
by an old man and his grandson. The old man saved him-
self by escaping to the garret, but his grandson was jammed
by some of the furniture in a corner of the stairs, and was
drowned almost within reach of his relative. William
Watson lived in one of the same row of houses with his
wife and two children. The flood demolished their house
and carried them out, bat Watson, as he was being whirled
along on the surface of the torrent, grasped a broken win-
dow-frame in one of the partially submerged houses, and
was saved, but his wife and children are lost. A publichouse
kept by Georgeßisby was partially demolished, only one of
the bedrooms and back kitchen remaining. Bisby, his wife,
and four children are gone. Next are a row of houses called

the " brick row." Down both front and back of these houses
the flood had raged in all its fury. The mud upon the
houses showed that the waters had risen from 16 to 18 feet
above the roadway. The first house of the row was tenanted
by a man named Dyson, his wife and children, and one or
two relatives. They were ten in number, but only one of

them is saved. The survivor is Dyson's brother, and he
escaped in a very remarkable manner. He was sleeping in
the top bedroom, and being awakened by the rush of the
water, and finding escape into the road cut off, he smashed
a portion of the lath and plaster partition, made his way to
the joists beneath the roof, and then broke through the
slates and got upon the roof, where he remained till assis-
tance could be given to him. In the back of the last house
of this row two children named Atkinson were swept out of
their bedroom along with the bed on which they were lying
and were drowned. In the next two houses resided two
families named Turner and one named Taplin. The uncer-
tain statements of the surviving neighbours fix the number
in each house at seven and eight, but not a trace of them or
their houses is left. The Hillsborough Inn had a narrow
escape from total demolition. The Shakspere Inn across
the road suffered to a similar extent. The passages were
several feet deep in mud, and at the parlour door, roughly
stretched upon a wooden bier, was the naked corpse of a
man which had been dug out of the mud and rubbish op-
pogitß the house. In a stable attached to the Yew Tree
Inn were six corpses—three women and three men. They
were laid upon stretchers just as they had been dug out of
the mud or dragged from out of the hedges, cr beneath
trunks of great trees or beams of timber that had been
whirled down the current. In the bed which one branch
of the current had made for itself behind the Hillsborough

Inn we saw the bodies of a man and a woman whom there
had not been time to get out. The body of the man was
partially buried, and the woman was laid beneath the bank.
She had on her drawers and one stocking. She had clung
with convulsive tenacity to a piece of phmk, but it had
proved insufficient to save her.
Leaving Hillsborough, and turning down towards Owler •
ton, the destruction appeared to be on a equally awful scale.
A. number of oottage houses were completely washed away,
and a thick deposit of mud concealed the well.kept gardens
that had been the pride of the cottagers. •Almost every
house that remained in a habitable condition was used as a
dead house. At every turning were to be met parties of
policemen and volunteers, bearing each a ghastly burden
In the publichouse kept by Mr. llolland wore fivo dead
bodies. In the Victoria, further on the Owlerton road,
there were four, which during cur brief stay there wore
increased to seven. In a stable attached to a beerhouse
were two bodies; in another stable, upon heaps of straw,
three mangled forms were laid out. On the road side be-
yond the Victoria were ono or two bodies, which would be
" dug out" when the labourers had time to attend to them.
In the stream there we saw the mangled body of a girl about
10 years old, which had been apparently cut in two by a
heavy piece of timber with machinery attached to it. Close
by the searchers discovered the mangled body of a man in
a muddy pool. It was removed to one of the inns. In the
same street, at one and the same moment, wo met throe
parties of bearers, each carrying a dead body.
On the Sheffield side of the stream seven or eight bodies
were recovered, and were taken to the Queen's Hotel. They
are not yet identified. The force of the current may be
estimated by the fact that the massive wall bounding the
barracks on the lower side was swept away. The flood
invaded the quarters of the sergeants. and two of the infant
children of Paymaster Sergeant Foulds were drowned in
their bed. The sentry at the gate had the narrowest pos-
sible escape, the flood coming upon him with lightning
suddenness.

At Neepsend, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph says :
"One part of a large factory has been cut away as clean
as if it had been sawn down close by the partition wall. A
little further on is a row of houses with their fronts removed,
and the honeycombed arrangements of the rooms fully ex••
posed to view. Near these transverse sections or interiors of
houses are numerous gardens, in which there is now no sign
of vegetation, but a tangle of torn shrubs and the ruffled
and tangled appearance of these gardens is as odd as that of
the unswept floor of a hair seating manufaotory. Near the
ditches and corners of these gardens men knee deep in mud
are looking anxiously about for the forms of women, and
men, and children, and lost property. The neighbourhood is
of red brick, and the height of the dark water mark on these
houses argues not only a fearful destruction of property,
but a not less fearful destruction of life. The flood has come
upon this low-lying neighbourhood like a thief in the night,
and the water mark shows that some of the houses have been
submerged nearly to the roof, some have been filled up to
the level of the second storey, and in others which stand a
little higher the water mark is about shoulder height."
In the town of Sheffield itself the destruction of property
as been almost greater than in the valley, but there, for-
tunately, it has been attended with comparatively little loss
of life. The Sheffield Telegraph states that—
" In the town the first alarm was given at about a quarter
past 12. The sharp hiss as of escaping steam, the sound as
of a mighty rush of water, made people rush towards the
river, when it was found that the Don was in an extraordi-
nary flood, and that some dreadful calamity had occurred.
At 2 o'clock the height and force of the current had greatly
abated. There was still a great volume of water, and the
roar with which it went along was like that of an express
train in a cutting. On Lady's- bridge a great number of
people were standing looking over the parapets on the fear-
ful heaps of timber mixed with straw and other debris which
the flood had piled up against the masonwork of the bridge,
The immense quantity of rafters, flooring, joists, planks, and
miscellaneous articles heaped to within a few feet of the top
of the bridge told a portentous story of buildings destroyed,
and melancholy were the forebodings of those who looked on
the ruin. There seemed wood enough to build a village. But
bad as were the fears of those who looked on the evidences
of disaster, none knew how dreadful was the reality, and
the majority had not the most distant idea of the loss of life
that had occurred. At the police station was a little crowd
of poor ill-dressed people who had been flooded out of their
dwellings, and who were glad to spend the night crouching
round the fire ;
and in the streets were several people mov-
ing about hastily ,with torches which they had improvised.
But as yet, beyond the sight of wet people and wet streets,
and beyond the roar of the river, and those ominous, but as
yet unexplained, heaps of timber about the bridge, there
was nothing known among the crowd of the loss of life, and
the spectators fondly hoped that the mass of wood might
prove to be nothing but the contractor's plant,
increased by
rubbish swept from the banks of the river."
In the darkness one could only guess, from the fearful
rumours that came from the lower part of the town, what
the scene there would be at daylight. The morning of Sa-

turday fully realised the worst fears of the night. The
wooden bridge at Hillfoot had disappeared—completely
carded away by the first rush of water, and with a noise
that startled the sleepers around, who sprang from their
beds with alarm. The view from their windows did not
tend to reassure them, for the flood was all around, boiling
and seething along, filling the houses, rushing up the stairs,
floating the beds and furniture. The screams and cries for
help are described as heartrending. Just below the bridge,
by the weir, stood a small house, occupied by James Shar-
man and his wife, who attended to the shuttle of the goit
that supplies Messrs. Butcher's works at Philadelphia. The
inmates were Sharman, his wife, and a daughter-in-law,
with several children. The watchmen aroused them when
the water began to rise, and they hastily left their dwelling.
Scarcely had they been out of the house a minute when the
current carried it away, and now not a vestige of the place
remains except the foundation. The bridge over the
goit went along with the house. At Philadelphia
corn-mills, which stands close to the water's edge, a
number of horses were drowned in their stables, pigs
in their sties, and fowls on their roost. We have not
heard that any life was lost at this point. Crossing
to Bacon Island, a low-lying piece of ground between the
goit and the river, the only access to whieh is now the nar-
row plank of the shuttle frame, we came at once into what
had evidently been the very heart of the flood in this part
of the valley. Gardens were covered deep in slime. Trees,
hedges, and walls were levelled with the ground. A man
and his wife, named Wright, lived in a block of houses here,
with their child, and another child that was staying with
them. On Friday Wright went to a funeral, and the
neighbours did not know whether he had returned, but
both he and his wife and one child aro missing. One little
thing was found in its bed after the water had sufficiently
subdued to enable men to get about, but the other members
of the household, perhaps aroused and attempting to escape,
have been carried away. In the block of houses, forming
an irregular square, of which Wright's formed a part,
every one is damaged to a greater or less extent." The
flood rose to the chambers and boated the inmates in their
beds. The lower apartments are filled with broken furni-

Lure and mud. The doors and windows are broken in by
the flood, and by the trees and wood that it carried along
with it. Of course all the houses and works along the river
side have been flooded, and damage to a fearful extent has
been done. In Messrs. Butcher's works at Philadelphia the
body of a woman, perfectly naked, was found, and it was
believed that a whole family living near Neepsend-bridge
had been washed away. In Ebenezer-street the body of a
man, rather under the middle height, with a moustache, was
found and conveyed to a house in Bowling-green-street. At
Kelham rolling-mill the men were compelled to escape by
the roof, and in so doing managed by some means to set it
on fire. When the flood had reached its height the water
rapidly subsided, leaving the marks of its presence in the
streets, which were in many places knee-deep in mud Almost
before they were passable persons sallied from their houses,
and the evil news spread quickly. The streets of the town
were thronged with persons hurrying to different parts,
anxious to inquire into the fate of friends dwelling near
the level of the river. While the darkness lasted little
could bo learnt from observation, but voices were heard
shouting greetings over the wastes of mud and water, and
eagerly inquiring how others had fared in the calamity.
One had heard the first rush, and sprang out of bed to see
the street filled with water. Another had been sleeping on
the ground floor and lieard a rush:of water, lie awoke his
companion, who thought ft; rained hard. No, it could not
be rain, the rush was too great for that. The bed moved—
it was wet—ho put out his foot, and found himself up
to the knees in cold water. Such incici.nts might be mul-
tiplied indefinitely. It needs only to be known that at the
dead of the night a great dark flood Rowed through a
densely populated part of the town, rousing the sleepers
from their beds, and only too frequently drowning them
like rats in a hole. Tho horrors of Friday night aro
known in the hearts of thousands, but can never bo told.
The destruction of property all over the low-lying neigh-
bourhood round the ,Midland station has been enormous.
This portion of the town was for a time completely in-
undated. All the large manufacturers are believed to
have suffered great loss, and the small householders are
mostly ruined. The loss of property is bad enough, but
the loss of life is the chief cause of regret here. Aroused
from their sleep in the dead of night, the poor people,
perhaps only half awake, seem to have made their way at
once into the streets, and were swept away instantly.
Several bodies recovered were partially dressed, while
others were entirely naked, their clothing having been
literally torn from their bodies by the violence of the stream.
Carried away by the fnrioug elirrent. several bodies have
been found in most extraordinary places—two having bee'
washed among the carriages in the Midland station.
The cast-iron bridge leading from the Crofts to Nursery-
street has been entirely demolished, not a vestige remaining.
The extreme force of the current at this point may be judged
from the fact that before reaching the iron bridge the cur-
rent would have been considerably weakened by first com-
ing in contact with the Corporation-bridge. But in spite
of everything buttresses, railing, and pavement have all
been swept away like mere timber, and carried to an enor-
mous distance down the river. The water dashed over the
wall on the Nursery-street side, actually tearing along with
it the stout iron railings and the stones in which they were
set. Large masses were driven across the street, a distance
of eight yards, while others were broken into ft ag-
monis and several gas-lamps thrown down. The
buildings on the opposite side of the street were consi-
derably damaged, and will require rebuilding in some
instances. The entire front of the Manchester Rail- '
way Hotel was broken in. Several low buildings on the
water's edge, near the nursery corn mill, were swept entirely
away, and a number of horses, pigs, &c,, with them. At ,
the corn mill the damage to the building was not large, but
the stock of grain and flour was much injured, if not ren-
dered entirely worthless. The horses were confined in a
stable in the yard, and the water rose to the height
of more than 6ft., but the stable being lofty the horses were
able to swim and were thus saved. All the houses in
Nursery-street were submerged five or six feet in water,
and the alarm of the inmates rose to a state of
freney when escape from their pitiable position seemed im-
possible. The buildings on both aides of the river, between
the corn mill and Lady's-bridge, have suffered greatly, and
all employment must bo suspended for many days. The
inhabitants of this neighbourhood were, however, more
easily able to extricate themselves than the residents of
some of the narrow streets with which the Nursery abounds. -
Stanley-street, Johnson-street, and Andrew-street were
less fortunate, and formed channels for broad streams of
water until daybreak on Saturday.
The walls surrounding Trinity Church wore completely
destroyed, as were also those of Bethesda Chapel, Stanley-
street. The school room of the latter, which forms the
basement story, was flooded to a considerable depth, and
the fittings much damaged.

The Attercliffe meadows on either side of the river are all
under water, and immense quantities of wreck have been
secured. The works in course of erection by Messrs. Nay-
lor and Vickers, near the Brightside station, have sustained
serious damage, the chimney bases, &c., already ereoted,
having been washed down. The new wall skirting the
South Yorkshire line has been partly destroyed. The
bridge over this part of the river has stood, and an im-
mense mass of furniture and wreck has been stopped by it.
It is impossible now oven to approximate the value of the
property destroyed. No one seems for a moment to think
of this in the presence of the fearful loss of life, the full ex-
tent of which is not likely to be known for some days to
come. As is nearly always the case in these great public
calamities, it is the poorest districts of the town only which
have suffered. No accurate return can yet be made of the
injuries which the workshops and forges of the great ma-
nufacturers in this part of the town have sustained, but
from the enormous solidity of all their plant little more
than temporary inconvenience is likely to have been occa-
sioned by the water.
In the broad thoroughfare called the Wicker immense
damage has been done to the tradespeople. Rushing with
terrific force through Mr. White's slate. yard, close by
Lady's-bridge, the water carried everything before it, strew-
ing the carcasses of animals, pieces of machinery, and largo
trees on every hand. Gradually the flood increased, and
within an hour of its first breaking through the river's brink
the houses and shops were inundated to the depth of several
feet. The shutters of many of the shops were torn down,
and the contents of the windows washed in all firections.
Many shops were at least 3ft deep in mater, though standing
at a much greater elevation from the causeway than others
of less recent construction. Tho loss sustained by the
tradesmen in this neighbourhood will be very great, as
many of them had largo stocks of goods in their cellars.
Several people aro missing in this neighbourhood ; four
bodies had been recovered by 5 o'clock on Saturday morning,
and conveyed to the Bull and Oak, but they have not been
identified.

DONCASTER, Saturday Evening.
The inundation throughout the entire valley of the
river Don has been unprecedented ; and not even the great
rood of 1857 was so prolific of damage as this has been.
Towing to late heavy rains, was unusually high,
andho Don,thea
additional water thrown into it by the Sheffield
calamity has thrown hundreds upon hundreds of acres un-
der water, and inflicted incalculable injury on the growing
crops.llnformation of the disaster was early telegraphed to
this town, and by the direction of Mr, Superintendent Gre-
gory, of the borough police force, intimation was at once
i
given to the nhabitantsof Marshgate, a district of Doncas-
ter contiguous to the Don, and in flood times under water.
Speedy steps to insure safety was taken, but at no time did
the water rise so high :as to place human life in jeopardy.
About eight o'clock the water had risen so quickly that
Crimpsall, behind the Great Northern Railway sta-
tion, was Covered, and with high water at Keadby at 10
o'clock it was feared that the water would spread, to the

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flood had reach its highestpoimt, ll'aPtiiti*f*: 411
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it had subsided about 28 inches ;it ill, aftgaras
although it did not attain its former height. . the e true-
Live character of the flood there wero abundant evidences on
every hand. Timber in large quantities, bedposts, feather
beds, tables, clocks, and various kinds of household furniture
passed down, and several carcasses of cattle also. About 11
o'clock the body of a middle-aged woman was taken out of
Crimpsall. It had no other clothing upon it than a night-
dress, and, judging by the rings upon the fingers, she must
have been in easy circumstances. The body was removed
to the New River Tavern. At Atxbrough, about seven
miles up the river from this town, the bodies of a man, a
a woman, a child, apparently about, two years of age, were
taken out ; and at Swinton, shout 'a .mile still further up,.
three other bodies wero recovered.
Large numbers of people have lined the river's banks all
the day, but it is now evident that the greatest volume of
water has passed by, and further damage here is not ap-
prehended. The water is very thickly imnregnated with
mud—a proof that it must have swept with terrific violence
over the land adjoining the river. Fish, pike in particular,
have been left in large quantities on land from which the
water has subsided.

SHEFFIELD, Sunday Evening.
Every additional inquiry made into the circum-
stances of this appaling calamity shows that it has
been much more disastrous than was at first antici-
pated. It is now estimated that the loss of life will
exceed 250, and that the value of the property de-
stroyed exceeds half a million. From Bradfield,
where the reservoir burst, down the course of the
rivers for 12 or 14 miles, the country is laid waste.
The reservoir covered an area of 76 acres, and
would hold 114,000,000 cubic feet of water. The
embankment, which crossed the end of the valley,
was an enormous erection, with an average height
of 85 feet, and 40 feet in thickness. It was 300
yards long. Between Matlock and Hillsborough, a
distance of four miles, the greatest loss of life has
been caused. Within this tract whole rows of
houses have been swept entirely away, in three of
which alone there were 25 lives lost. In the oppo-
site row the whole of the inhabitants weredrowned,
and scarcely any of their bodies have been dis.
covered. The flood seems to have swept off every-
thing before it, from the confluence of the Loxley
and the Revilin to the Don. Between Wardsend
and Sheffield on the Don the bodies were seen lying
in the mills and the mud and ruins. There were 14
in one place, 10 in another, and 13 in a third. At
Neepsend 900 acres of gardens were devastated, and
whole families were swept away. An official report
just received states that 156 dead bodies have been
already recovered ; 70 have been identified. Large
numbers aro not yet found. Bodies have been dis-
covered as far down the river as Doncaster. Along
the banks of the river, between that town and Shef-
field, the scene of the inundation was visited by vast
crowds on Sunday. The police and a strong mili-
tary guard acted for the maintenance of order and
the security of property. A movement for a general
subscription was immediately commenced, and a
meeting will be held to-morrow. The inhabitants
of the submerged districts have lost everything,
and an appeal for instant help will be made, hun-
dreds having nothing left of their property but their
night-dresses. The inquests were opened on Satur-
day night, and then adjourned for ten days. There
were then 90 bodies in the workhouse, and the core•
ner said he had been informed there had been nearly
200 found. Be referred to a statement, which is
generally made and believed, that, in consequence
of the dangerous state of the reservoir, warning was
sent to the inhabitants of the valley as far as Darn-
flask, and that only a few lives were lost there, but
that the warning was not sent to thickly peopled
districts below. Strict inquiry will be necessary to
ascertain if the accident could have been prevented.

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

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By the arrival of the overland mail we have
advices from Calcutta to Feb. 8 ; Madras, Feb. 15 ;
Colombo, Feb. 17 ; Hong Kong, Feb. 1 ; Singapore,
Feb. 4 ; Sydney, Jan 21 ; Melbourne, Jan. 25 ;
Brisbane, Jan. 10 ; Auckland, Dec. 31; Dunedin,
Jan. 18, &e.