Litchfield enquirer., 1877-06-07
A Narrow Escape in the Croton
 Aqueduct.

water is shut off at the Croton dam, and the aqueductis emptied by the wastewiers. Many strange and exciting adventures be. fall the men detailed for this service; and though but one life has ever been lost, large parties have sometimes been in i'm mlnent danger. The man-holes having been opened previously, the laborers un- der charge of Mr. Church. dressed in rough suits. enter the aqueduct at the dam. and travel downward either afoot or Tn an ingenious car propelled by crank like the hand-cars used on railway. The effect IS weird and awe-inspirlng. Some of the men carry torches, whose smoke and wavering blaze curl and flash in the darkness and throw fantastic shadows and reflections on the moist walls. The voices zeyerberate like peals of thunder, and seem to awake responsive vibratic ns in the massive stone and brick work itself. In some conditions of the atmosphere, labor CTS repairing the masonry five miles be- low can be distinctly heard by those at the entrance, and at all times the human voice. pitched in an ordinary key, can be heard at a distance of two or three miles. | in long low rumbles. A broad halo of light frames the men in, and behind this there is an impenetrable. blackness. so dense that an inexperienced person takes every step with extreme caution. There are few greater promoters of terror than the power of darkness, and the simple, su- perstltious Irishmen descehdiAg the lad der at the entrance leave sunshine, sky and fields above in no cheerful mood. The short clay pipes are allowed to go out and few words are spoken. It is business to be done with as soon as possible Thou sands of tons of water are pressing against the gates at the entrance, and should a the unfortunates and enguf them with 1T. resistible force. Once, in fact, an order was misunderstood, and twenty men nar- rowly escaped with their lives. Mir. Church, with this number of laborers, en- tered the aqueduct to make some repairs, and instructed the keeper at the dam to party were making some repairs at point some distance below the entrance at II a, m., when Mir. Church noticed a gradual rise in the water, Afraid of causing a panic, he did not say anything to his men but urged them on in the hope that the work might be completed that morning: The water continued to rise, however, first submerging their feet. and then l creeping up toward their with terrible stealth and certainty. The situation was that of shipwrecked crew cast upon 8 rock which is being slowly covered by ah | incoming tide. The engineer now realiz- ed the fact that his order had been misun- derstood, and that the water had been turned on at the wrong time, and would soon be within few inchessof the roof of the aqueduct. By this time the men were in highly nervous condition, and MT. Church had to use his authority in pre- venting them from making confused re- l treat for the nearest exit, which was some distance away. Meanwhile the water had made it's way above their knees and was rushing through the aqueduct with ve. locity of two miles and quarter per hour. It was no easy work walking against such a current as this, and the progress made toward the man-hole was unavoidably slow. The torches were successively put out by the splash until only one remained and that threw 8 dim, yellow, uncertain flicker on the dark surroundings. There was one danger which Mir. Church fore saw and was particularly anxious to avert If the men were not kept under control, each would make disorderly struggle to reach the ladder at the man-hole, and a delay would result that might prove fatal As the water increased Tn depth the great r,of course, became their terror, and when the gray light of the opening came into 1 view their bodies were submerged to their waists, while the current almost lifted them off their feet. By reasoning with them and encouraging them, however, MT. Church allayed their fears and they gain ed the ladder, and ascended it, one by one, in safety Wm. H. Rideing, in ScribgaeT for June.
 The chimney swallow is well.known blrd, which builds it's nest inside unused chimneys. The nest of this bird is some what like that of the barn.swallow in shape, but is made of small sticks instead of mud. These sticks, like the little balls of mud, are fastened together by means of gluelike substance which is formed in the mouth of the bird for almost all the birds which belong to the swallow family are able to secrete this glue, and make use of it in building their nests.
 The chimney-swallows are usually not abundant in the large cities. and 90 arc met with only now and then; but in small towns, and ill the country, they are very common, and nearly every unused chim- ney has at least one nest. The birds feed almost entirely upon insects, and when the young brood is matched, the parents hunt for food by night as we'll as during the day; therefore you often may hear, in the middle of the night, the twittering of the young birds in the chimney when the old ones return to the nest with the insects which they have captured. Like barn. swallows, the chimney-swallow are very sociable, and so many often build in the same chimney that the nests block up the fue and entirely stop the draft. When heavy and long-continued rains occur, the glue by which the nests are stuck on be comes softened, and the old birds striking against the nests while flying in and out, break them from their attachment to the bricks, so that they fall to the bottom of the Aue. It is said that, in 1857, during 8 long season of wet, cold weather in June, four hundred and eighty of these birds, young and old, were. precipitated down single chimney in Woodbury. Ct. Sometimes the chimney-swallow and the barn-swallow build their nests in caves or hollow trees. but barns and chimneys are so much more safe and convenient, that they are almost always selected in prefer ence.-RrQf. ". x. Brooks, St. Nicholas for June.
 CONSUMPTION AND cIIMATE.-The census of 1870 shows the average mortality from consumption throughout the Union to be in asrough way, proportional to the aver: age temperature of the given State. Deaths from this cause are twice as ire: quent h Massachusetts; and-as Mir. Bill rather candidly neglected to inform us, says an exchange-ten times as frequent in Minnesota as they are in Georgia. Minnesota is indeed colder State than Massachusetts, but it's greater cold is off set. in part, by the greater dryness of its soil. A damp soil is one of the most pro- life causes of consumption. Minnesots occupies an elevated portion of the conti nent; it is an undulating couhtry, and its natural watersheds insure its thorough } drainage. This circumstance undoubted } iy conduces to the healthiness of the eli } mate. But we have have found from per : sonal observation, that where persons are } liable to consnmntion 1t ia better to takC