The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1876-04-28

The Railroad Track Covered
with sand, Rocks and Fish
= Torrent of WRfer Pouring
from the Side Of ahe Mount.
AHA
IN. i SUM-
PoUGHKEEPsIE, April 12-At the |
foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain, on
the eaat side OF the Hudson, near
the northern entrance to the High.
lands, is the handsome summer res
idence of the Widow Wade. OPP
posite in the Hudson, is PollipelPs
Island. The ground on which the
Wade mansion is located is eight
hundred or . thousand feet above
the level of the river, the back
ground being Sugar Loaf mountain,
= Thousand feet higher. A strange
occurrence took place within u
thousand feet of the house yester-
day afternoon. ~
} - While James McManus. the rail-
road ffagman, was in the rock cut
north 1t 3 p. m, he heard q singular
noise, . sort of rafting or cracking.
To use his own words, al thought
the storm king was tumbling." In
Q minute afterward there was an.
other rumbling and rafting louder
than the first, almost Immediately
folio we'd by q third report. Said
he, II have heard powder explosions
and sharp claps OF thunder, but
never heard such q noise as that"
He ran south to ascertain the cause,
and found the railroad track for five
3 hundred feet covered witk stones
and bouiders and sunfish and perch.
He looked up the. hill and saw q
hole three hundred feet in width
and Fifty feet sn depth, and from it
fully fifty thousand tons of dirt and
sand had to all appearance been lif-
ted up and hurled into and across
the cove below. The cove 10 five
hundred feet in width, and the ava
lanche swept through it and over 1t
70 the Hudson River Railroad track,
tearing down fences and covering
the track elk inches deep with
stones, dirt and fish. Hugo trees
were hurled In every direction, and
the water the entire length of the
cove was disturbed.
At z o'clock in the evening there
was another report, and another
mass Of earth was hurled to the
cove below. At o'clock yesterday
, mofning there were two more re-
Forts, and more dirt was displaced
What IL stranger still almost imme-
diAtely altar the last reports, o tor
rent of water burst from the bot
tom of the cavern, from where thu
earth had been hurled, and plunged
down the side of the hill, cutting /
ravine five feet deep in less than NJ
time, and the volume of water is in
crOAsing hourly. When the fact il
stated that there is no pond o.
, stream near the spot, except one ;
mile back OF Sugar Loaf, tie sud
D den appearance of so large q stream
of water from the bottom of q cav
ern fifty feet below the surface o
the ground is remarkable. Tree
thirty feet in height were carried
toa distance of q thousand feet
Scores Of people visited the spot to
day, but not one could sRtisfacto
rily explain the occurrence. 1t wa
not o land slide. 1t certainly look
ed like an eruption, for to all ap
pearances the thousands of tons o
earth must have been forced up
ward and outward to the cove be
low. The result OF this upheavs
can easily be seen from the wind
oWs of the passing trains A
around the chasm the ground wa
undisturbed, except where the in
mense mass of earth struck it as
tumbled into the river. The in
. dicAtions are that there will 500
be another upheaval there, aud tn
trackmen are watching the trac
closely. The occurrence has RI
Yealed tons OF the finest sand wher
II was thought no sand existed.