The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-09-11

DANGERS FROM FLOODs-SUDDEN RISING OF
RIyeRS-A DRY wAsHOUT-yALLEY OF THE
PECOS.
Correspondence Of the New York Tribunel
SANTE FE.. n. NJ, August 22.-Tbe nor
NAL condition Of most OF the rivers in New
Mexico and Of many OF those in Colorado
is that OF dry arroyo or gulch through
which not drop OF water generally runs
except far below the surface, where il
can generally be found by digging pits.
But these aroyos frequently drain broad
extent OF country, including high noun
tains and wide valleys. The rains In
this country, too, do not come in
gentle showers or in long, steady rains
that gradually are absorbed into the earth
and slowly carried off by underground
drainage. The mornings are generally
bright, aud the atmosphere is wonderfully
clear aud transparent. About noon a little
cloud may be seen rising, which looks like
mass OF cllmulus, such as gathers in the
sky on hot summer afternoons In the East,
aud from which rain rarely falls. With re-
markable rapidity the clouds will over
spread the heavens, growing blacker and
more threatening every moment until, be-
fore one has time to seek shelter, great
drops OF rain begin TO fall, aud then the
water comes down in actual torrents for an
hour, or perhaps two hours.
Little rills, gathering on the mountain
sides, unite to form brooks, and hundreds
OF these flowing into one common water
course make q resistless river OF 1t 10 few
minutes. As il rushes down into the val
ley 1t increases in volume and momentum,
breaks out OF its banks, and carries every
thing before II. But it is IN the lower por-
tons Of their courses that these streams do
most damage during their sudden Hoods.
There may not have been drop OF rain
within miles OF place in the valley through
which one OF these dry arroyoses extends.
The only warning that flood is about 10
take place may be dark clouds hanging over
mountain range twenty miles away. and
the low mutiering Of distant thunder.
Even this may have passed away, and the
bed Of the stream may be as dry as an ash.
heap. All at once roaring sound will be
heard. A wall OF water four, six, some
times ten, feet high even Is seen rushing
down the gulch. Before it, pushed by an
irresistible force, is great mass OF debris,
boulders several feet In diameter, sticks,
bushes. the trunks OF trees. rolling over and
over in the widest confusion In front OF the
great wave which always advances but
never feceQes.
The structure that can stand the shock Of
this mass OF
TREES AND ROCKS AND WATER
must be exceptionally strong. 1t strikes
the piles OF railroad bridge, which are
driven down eight or ten feet into the loose
gravel, undermInes them, and takes them
down the stream like feathers, aud, of
course, the ties and rails 60 with them, the
latter being wreuched from their fsslcnings
and bent into all sorts OF fantastic shapes.
II comes out OF caion, impinges against
au embsnkment, through which there has
been built only small culvert, cuts away
the earth as though II were only quicksand,
and lands mile Of the track, Ties, rails,
and all, hundred yards away from
ia original position. One nood took out
ten miles Of the track 81 the Denver
and Rio Grade road between Colorado