The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-02-07
S,.auehanns Ice-Gorse.

ue conr the following paragraphs con-
corning the great ice-gorgc In the eusaue-
hanna from kilograms in the Baltimore more.
papers of date:
POM DEPOSIT, February 5.-The warm,
,na,,;np weather and rain which prevailed
yesterday was the occasion Of considerable
anxiety in Port Deposit, and fears were en-.
tertained of sudden rise In the river and
the movement OF the ice-gorge from McCalls
ferry and other points above. The clear and
mild weather Of to-day has, however, re-
stored confidence, and should the present
slow thaw continue for week, rotting the
ice, and thus giving better passage for the
water, hopes are entertained that but little
further damage may be sustained in and
about the town.
Mr.. John ". Mccullough. an old inhabit-
ant of Port Deposit, seventy-eight years Of
are, says that in all his experience he never
saw as much ice as at the present time. He
seems TO think there Is no doubt OF the Ice
being gorscd to the bottom all the way
across the river at this point. The average
depth he judges to be from ten to sixteen
feet. but in some places it is as deep as thirty
or forty feet.
The gorge is a standing wonder for eXcur-
sionists, who come in great numbers to see II.
In order to break it up several scientific pro-
posals have been suggested or canrassed.
One of these is TO blow up the gorge with
nitro-alyccrine another to batter 1t down
with heavy artillery; third by Captain
Myers, of Havre de Grace, who proposes TO
dig out channel through the gorge with his
tugboat Atlas and steel plough. Captain
Myers offered to carry his plan into effect for
$500, and the offer, it is said, was accepted by
q committee of citizens of Port Deposit; but
I'D to this evening there has been no attempt
to carry out the idea.
The river here is fully two miles wide,
and as the gorge extends eight miles your
readers can form some idea of the immense
quantity of floating material there will be if
a flood should come to put it in motion. Ice
thus packed has double It's thickness under
the water, and If the gorge Mt McCall's Ferry,
some eighteen miles above. should break away
and come down with the vast flood of water
that is damned up behind it great would
be the destruction through all the lower side
of Port Deposit. IF it should break away
above without any great rise of water in the
river the immense ice barricade piled up
along the wharves would, on the other hand,
shield the town from further damage. Hence
q slow thaw, giving time for the accommodating
water to rot the ice and work its way
through, is regarded as the only escape from
the threatened catastrophe.
kilograms from above are not very reas-
surfing. There had been nothing at Will
Transport to create alarm, though there was
a rise of two feet on Saturday. The rise was
one foot to-day at Harrisburg. Pa, and two
to three feet at Columbia, Pa, within the
last twenty-four hours.
0:30 P. M.--The river is still an statu quo.
The weather grows colder, and another
freeze is threatened. The prospect affords
much relief to the inhabitants. The rise in
the river above increases, and with 4 very
heavy freeze and formation Of heavy new
ice the cold snap will afford no permanent
safety. The town is full Of strangers.