The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-02 00:00:00

Inundation of the Loire.

ORLEANS, Sept• 29.
The worst fears of this community have been re-
alised since i wrote to you on Thursday evening,
and the flood of 1866 will leave behind it as sad a

history as those of its terrible predecessors in 1846
and 1856. I have already described to you the state
of matters up to Thursday (27th), at 6 p.m. On
that day the Loire was still flowing somewhat in its
usual direction, though its descending torrents were
strewed with the wrecks of many farmsteads, tim-

ber-yards, and other centres of domestic, and in-
dustrial life. The lower parts of the town, too,
were under water ; and the tremendous torrent, as
it roared through the 16 arches of the railway
bridge, and the nine arches of the bridge which
connects Orleans proper with the Faubourg of St.
Marceau, seemed as if it were about to sweep away
these beautiful structures. Still, up to a late hour
on that night it was hoped that the dykes would
would prove sufficient to keep the river in its course.
The authorities, however, had for days before been
preparing themselves and the community for a very
different issue. During the whole of Thursday there
were no doubt grave misgivings as to the security
of the dykes which protected St. Marceau and the
adjoining districts of country. From break of day
to midnight, with unceasing activity, the removal
of families, cattle, and property of every descrip-
tion went on under the superintendence of the
authorities, and boats and rafts arrived from Paris
to be used in certain dreaded contingencies. When
I left the suburb of St. Marceau between 10 and 11
o'clock on Thursday night this work had slackened,
but was still going on, and the whole population
was afoot, having been prohibited from sleeping
that night in their threatened houses. These orders
extended to a large area on the St. Marceau
side of the river, covered with streets, villas, farm-
houses, vineyards, and abounding in nursery gar-
dens: When I passed homewards, about midnight,
by the temporary office of the prefecture, a notice
was being put up for the information of the eager
crowd. It was to the effect that the water at Gien
and at the bridge of Orleans was nearly stationary,
but was not subsiding. The access leading to sub-
merged localities was guarded by gendarmes and
lighted by flaring torches to prevent persons being
drowned through ignorance of the danger which
surrounded them. All was calm and quiet, though.
uninvited crowds perambulated the streets. Never-
theless the crisis of a terrible catastrophe was at
hand.
At one o'clock on Friday signal guns and the
blast of the bugle gave a last note of warning to the
doomed district ; and soon the cry went wildly
_
through the town that the dykes had given way, vc
as the Orleans vulgar phrase expresses it, " lea le'
,'1:
Chateau
miles above Orleans, at a place opposite the
or bend.
or: 1; creves." The first breach was made about six
de l'lsle, where the dykes form an angle
Once made the breach soon became enlarged, and
desolated a wide
torrent which with unchecked fury
\l‘vlatrocreraenut
running
tnwinags
and in its course sweeping right
expanse of country,
in a minute or two there was rushing through it a
across the
in this sad state that
St
Marceau early on
, and in some places,
1711,„...78a fsouabiunrinbgofyeSltlo.
Friday morning -and gardens •
where the ground was low,
the tops of garden walls
and the roofs of o h uses only appeared above the
through houses an g
flood.
During the day I ascended the towers of
the cathedral, which command an unbroken view of
the plain far and near. The spectacle was distress-
ing. What was a day or two ago one vast garden
of richness was now a waste of waters. Wherever
I turned my telescope I saw the. tops of isolated
houses, or whole villages monuments of the dis-
astrous catastrophe of the night. The amount
of damage done by the Loire in this immediate
neighbourhood must exceed milli
ons ; what the total
loss is throughout the whole course of the river no
one dare guess at for
a long time to come. lam
glad to say that the number of lives lost is very
small. Two men employed on the farm of the
Chateau de l'lsle, reported this morning to have
been carried down and drowned, were during the
day rescued from a tree which they had ascended
for safety.
The
.bridge at Olivet, over the Loiret (an impor-
tant tributary of the Loire), has given way. The
omnibuses between Orleans and Olivet are replaced
by boats. A great part of the road is under water.
Olivet is A league from Orleans, and the road to it
passes tlirough St. Marceau.

CORNISH PILCHARD •FISHERY.— Although the
season has advanced so far without any success of moment
to report, the hopes of the fishermen ou the south coast of
Cornwall have most suddenly revived in the last few days,
consequent on a moderation in the weather. On Thursday
two seines at Coverack, and three seines at Porthalla shot,
and on Friday no loss than five seines belonging to St.
Mawe's shot in the western bay of Falmouth. All those
have enclosed fish, which are being tucked, and many
thousands of hogsheads are expected to be landed, espe-
cially as finer weather seems to have set in. No news
from the north coast up to Saturday evening. •
CRYSTAL PALACE.—ONE SHILLING DAY.—Mon-
day, Oct. I.—Admissions on payment, 4,011; ditto by
season tickets, I,o77—total visitors, 5,088.