The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-21 00:00:00

THE INFNDATIONS IN HOLLAND.

A letter from Rotterdam, dated Jan. 15, says :—.
If the distress of the homeless poor in London is
great at this inclement season, that of the inhabi-
tants of the district through which the river Waal
wends its course to join the Maese is frightful to
an extreme. In the beginning of January it was
observed that the vast accumulations of snow in
this district was causing the rise of the river to a
dangerous extent. With anxiety and dread the
inhabitants watched the daily increase of the in-
vading waters, Row laden with immense masses of
ice, and strenuously exerted themselves to
strengthen the resistance offered by those artificial
barriers by which alone Holland is preserved from
total submersion. But still the flood rose, and the
ice-masses formed themselves, as it were, in huge
battering-rams, pressing with irresistible strength
against the dikes and dams. The sound of the church.
bell, clear and ominous in the frosty air, kept telling
the sad tale of imminent danger, and warning all
who could labour to aid in the good cause, and those
who could not to prepare for the worst. Higher
and higher rose the. waters, and soon the surface of
the ponderous shifting ice-masses stood within half
an inch of the dike-level. Good God ! should it
rise that half inch higher, their cottages, their
cattle, their provisions, their all would become a
prey to the unsparing havoc ! Then rose to heaven
many a prayer for help—for mercy ! At last a
bulging out in the dike directed the anxious gaze
of all to one spot—for the waters were pressing
hard upon it. With the strength and energy of
despair they tried to stay the progress of the flood.
as it sought egress from its narrow channel into
their fields and dwellings. lerxes as well tried to
bind the ocean in chains. Suddenly the dike
yielded, and the waters poured through—the ice-
masses and the flood rose above it, and swept
on in their terrific course, submerging fields, barns,
and cottages, drowning the cattle, destroying
all. The aged and the sick, the women and
children, sought a refuge in their attics, where
benumbed with cold, without bedding, clothes, fire,
or provisions, they had to pass days of inexpressible
terror—of horrible starvation. For a long time it
was impossible to approach them, and it is feared.
many a cottage has been swept away in the flood,
and its inhabitants frozen to death on the ice-masses.
One family of seven persons was rescued from the
attic in whichthey had sought shelter, so thoroughly
exhausted by cold and hunger that they could not
even answer the questions of their deliverers. A.
poor mother, with her infant, to which she had.
given premature birth, was lying in bed in the
bleak attic of her homely dwelling, while her hus-
band, from an aperture in the roof, sought, by
cries and signals, to attract the attention of
a few brave men, who at the imminent risk
of their lives were endeavouring to make their
way between the ice-blocks in order to
rescue some of their perishing fellow-creatures
from destruction. They went to the poor fellow's
help, descended into the attic through the aperture
in the roof, through which they returned, bringing
with them the mother and her babe. It was time,
for the waters had already risen to within two
inches of her bed.

The distress and alarm of these districts are
great, for the evil may have only •commenced.
Should a sudden thaw set in, or the wind blow
fiercely from the north-west, God knows what
additional misery and destruction will ensue. Sub-
scriptions are pouring in from liberal hands for
the relief of the suffering thousands, cast by this
calamity in penury on the world. But it will
require the expenditure of large sums to
provide for even their more pressing neces-
sities. Even as I write, fresh intelligence
arrives from the inundated districts detailing
additional scenes of wretchedness—people dying
from cold and hunger ; their houses cut away by
ice, as corn is mown down by the harvester's scythe;
a church which. had stood hundreds of years swept
down, as a puff of wind sweeps down a house ofcards;
and the prospect is even yet more fearful. Holland
has often suffered much from inundations, but never
within the memory of living man has an inunda-
tion been accompanied with so much distress and
destruction—with so much heartrending grief and
despair.