Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-02-10
GyEssEf.pOOED BANKS.
Crrnp,ing Georges Along the Susquehann

CrGfuDtinE eiofSSS Along, inc
Port Deposit Dispatch to the Press.
l.! tie cold gray light CT the early MORN
in, the occupants of the houses and
owners cr lumber yards and storehouses
bordering on the river front, stood out
on the ~ilaryes pe2ring up ard down
the :;u>Quellanna end speculating as to the
probability %: the rising OF the waters. 1t
frozo hard during tho night and it seemed
to be the opinion o! 'he Oldest residents,
thosGtO whom the vag;iries of the river are
familiar, AMI who talk g;iOly of inunda
tons dating as far back as 1880, that there
was little danger +, DC apprehendcd until
a rapid and continuous thaw should set in.
Port Deposit is 4 queer, rambling little
town. \ long, struggling street stretches
for mile and a half, or so, running par
.sllci with tho river i'il5 roadway slant
towards the SusQuehanna, and miniature
mountains, their rocky sides thickIy
clothed with trees and scrub, afford Il
picturesque back round TO the old houses
on the other Side, with their Quaint arches
and gables, built with a stability that
speaks of an architecture of by-gOne days.
These houses, aud the stores that are
dot ted here and there along the length Of
the street, have nothing TO fear even
1t is the houses anu stores on the lower
side of the depot and the track Of tho Cen
tral division OF the Ph:Iat elehia, Whining
ton & BoItimore railroad, and the ice
houses. warehouse, lumber yards and
cottages that lie between the track and the
river, some hundred yards distant from
tile depot, that are threatened.
DuIiug the n;S:.: 10 perceptible change
had t,l- n nt1rn th;i .lS nf the rIvpr
Away rs far as the eye could reach
both up aud down the river a rainia-
ture polar sea lay stretched out-a still
iloe OF frosted hillocks of ice ofevery shape
an;t siz.. conceivable, from n brick to q
huge Saratoga trunk, heaped up and
loosely packed from shore 10 shore.
The mass is not compact, however, anu
much of the ice is rotten. Hence ii the
big ice gorge at Safe 1Iarbor should break
and start down the river it will sweep the
McClil's ferry before it ; the whole mass
OF Gloahs Would then carry the gorge here
along witt, it to HaYre dc Grace. Here
two dangers are to be- appvehcuded. At
=, Watson's Island, u mile and d half below
this place. aud about like distance from
Havre de Grace, a solid sheet of ice
stretches AVA up +: and beyond the
railway bridge. If the released
masses Of ice formed by .the three
gorges should not by the sheer
force Of their "nwaId Iusl, break
away this iigld Of ice, it will heap up a
barrier above aud below to the river 8
onward coarse, and a disastrous flood in
the lover part of Port Deposit seems as
insvitablo as was the case in 1851 1875
and 's1. Even il partial passage be
forced through the field Of solid ice by the
oncoining foe it is feared that tho blocks
scill form barrier on the shoals lying
below the bridge, and thus forming dam,
again cause an overflow of the river. 1t is
fair to say that but Il section of the in
habitants take this gloomy view of affairs.
The property :,olde1s along the
liver front DO not appear to
be taking any extraordinary pre-
cautions 10 secure their property,
and inhabitants who have seen all the
great ico gorges fer forty years past
hardly anticipate any trouble this season.
Thomas Wilson, of Havre de Grace, the
agent of the Susquehanna & Tidewater
canal. said tc day that he had "a, 900 of
phosyhatcs stored alongside the river, but
he Is 50 satisfied that the gorges will pass
away harmleSsiy, that he has taken no
steps for their removal. AS long as the
frost holds he and many Others think that
there is absolutely no danger, and when
the thaE comes, and the gOrges come
down the river, he believes that they will
pass out under the bridge and down the
bay, entirely sweeping away the snow
ice stretching from Watson's island to the
railway bridge