Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-02-20
Morcester 9aiIp SPY.
THE FLOOD IN CALIFORNIA.

You can have no conception in New England
OF what flood is. Your ideas of mountain
wrath and river rayage have been formed by
the freshets IN the Saco, the Connecticut. the
Merrlmac, and now and then the accounts that
reach you of the anger of the Mohawk and The
Hudson. Those give only little ribbands of
disaster. But here one mountain bulwark
from seven to twelve thousand feet high, along
a line OF five hundred miles, has been hurting
cataracts tor six weeks through the widest
gorges down toward one river-system through
an immense plain that has no levee upon its
banks The result is an imperial devastation.
The two great interests of the state mining
and agriculture, are already frightfuy scourg-
ed, and as we are only midway in the wet
season, we know not when or what the end
may be. SO far as we get word from the in.
terror, 1t is monotonous account of wild 500
liaton. The branches and sources of the Yu
ba, the Feather, the American, the Mokelum-
ne, the Stanislaus, the MERGED have risen to
incredible heights and nearly cleaned the chief
mining districts of the bridges, suices, tun
nels, dykes, bitches, mills, and implements
which represent the toll and capital of years
Nature has taken the hydraulic washing for
this season into her own. hands, aud given a
specimen of her power of moving the hills
gold and all, down into the Sacramento. And
with the remorseless torrents have been borne
spGntered houses, machinery, cattle the wreck
OF gardens and orchards, the supports ard ru-
ms OF aqueducts, the entertainments of skillful
roads, and we know not yet how many human
bodies, to be whelmed IN the turbid tides of
the vast trunk rivers below. The rise and flu
ry OF some OF these streams in the wild rayines
cannot be conceived, even when the audacious
figures are reported. Sixty and eighty feet
may be stated, with Bible near at hand on
which the pen is ready to vouch its veracity.
In one Couon of the KLAMATH river, in the
north part of the state, which Mt. Shasta looks
down upon, a suspension bridge, ninety feet
above the usual current was swept away, and
the water rose fifty feet above that, making
tide hundred and forty feet above low-water
mark. That story looks large-does mt it ? but
you can't know what the truth is till you visit
California, and my pen is as ready to make
oath to it, as a seceSsionist in Jail is to swear
allegiance to Abraham. Don't send out here
however, to test my vcracity. AS soon as the
sun comes out, the river goes down as fast as
a secessonist'S loyalty.
Each one OF the subordinate streams on the
slopes and in the passes of the mountains has
wrought as much damage us one of the New
England treshets on whole river. In some
counties every bridge is swept away and the
roads are about ruined But after all the des-
truction in the gorges and among the hills is
summed up, we have the desolation on the
lake week ago every street Of Sacrament
to, the capitol, was under water some of them
ten or fifteen feet and from the Coast Range
to the Sierra there seemed to be an unbroken
sea. The steamboat from Marysyille to Sac.
ramento sailed over the stage road, which is
nearly Decline between the two cities. 1t is
thought that. in some directions, diagonal
lines might have been chosen in which one
could have rowed for two hundred miles some
fiDlpS DaSciuU tho roofS of Il 81,
tops OF telegraph poles. We have had con-
ceptlon, assure you, of what the earth looked
like in preadalnite ages, and no sceptics need
hereafter attempt any criticism on the account
of the flood in Genesis Our minister read it
i'll church yesterday, and noticed that the
congregation listened not only with evident
and undonbting faith, but with sy mptoms OF
grim JOY that California can beat the Fifteen
cubits upward" which the waters are said TO
have prevailed" Already we boast that no
country can get up freshet and desoation
on such mighty scale.
But it is pitiful to think of the ruin. An
area probably as large as the whole state of
Massachusetts has been, if it is not now, under
water. And it is the rich agricultural region
of the state. The land should now be plowed
and sown for the harvest which is due in May
and June. But over tens of thousands of
acres the fences are wiped off; barns and
bldCkS vi gram are duHlulldlcu5 CdlLlG nave
been drowned, or chilled, or starved farming
implements are foated away or ruined
houses are soaked if not destroyed; orchards
are buried under debris, or killed by the cold
tides and sleet; sand is washed upon the
fruitful SOIL waiting to burst into the green of
wheat, or the beauty of vineyards confidence
in the valley as fit home for human beings is
broken down in many Of the energetic colo
nists-and hundreds Of them, after they have
seen their cattle killed and their homesteads
rayaged, have been saved from the upper
rooms of their houses, and sometimes from
the tops of trees, by boats and little steamers
that have crused Samaritan errands of
rescue, and brought away paupers that two
months ago were independent.
| visited Sacramento last week, and sailed
in the rain through streets alive with boats,
and lined with houses hat'burled in the Shiny
tide But the aspect of the city, partly
drowned as it is, was cheerful compared with
the vast lagoons over which we steamed, that
should now be green with the peeping grain
A cold north wind blew the sleety storm over
the muddy waste that was relieved only by
trees here and there, or the roofs OF few
houses or now and then a mound just swell
ing above the yellow expanse, on which hud'
died and starving cattle were shlvering in the
wet blasts. We overlook one relief steamer,
and took from her over hundred people,
some OF them children with naked legs and
feet, who had been rescued from homes in
which they had suffered for days from lack OF
fire and scanty food. Most of them had lost
every thing.
Tie charity of San Francisco and the cities
of the interior has been Instituted and glorious.
In Sacramento the largest hall in the city is
hospital, under the control of an admirable
benevolent society, to furnish beds, clothing,
and food for all who are homeless. Thirty
thousand dollars were contributed from San
Francisco in money and supplies to the treas
ury of that Sacramento organization. A week
ago, on Sunday morning, word came to us OF
the higher rise Of lhe water in Sacramento,
and the difficulty of getting any provision
there. Collections were taken ut once in
many of the churches before service com
mittee was in session in our great Music Hall
wagons were sent through the city to collect
cooked food bakeries were set at work the
cooking apparatus OF halls and hotels put in
requisiton and in the afternoon tons OF food,
ready to be eaten, were sent by them to the
capital, and distributed early Monday morn.
ing. Strong men ia Sacramento cried like
chill lren when they saw the unoaded bounty
so speedily and thoughtlully supplied. Now
our Music Hall is turned into receiving home
tor the destitute that come to the city the
steamers bring them down free, and iced them
too on the PASSAGE and homes are provided
for them by the bounty of out citizens who
open their houses to the sufferers.
But what will the result be 10 the state
1t still storms furiously as | wIile. The Bay
from my window is yellow with soil from the
Sierra Through the Straits OF Carquinez the
downward rush of watnr 10 mn annrmnus tide