The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-02
HIGH WATER SUBSlDiNG
TWELVE FEET ABOVE DANCER
 LINE AT MONTGOMERY.
Large Crowt Gathers at River Front. Hunters Find Game in Plenty. Propfty Not Damaged
 by Flood.

There was ? peculiar fascination to a crowd of peoile in watching the big riv- CT hood yesterday. and all day long the streets along the river front were lined. Being hoiidty. in the afternoon throngs Of the curiou were greatly augmented, and from 2 dclock until dusk shut out the panorama they watched the sea of waters. The comments and comparisons of the crowd went all the way back to the tremendous freshet of 1886. On the last day of March was the fioodtide In the Alabama River. when the high water mark of 56 feet was reached. In com parison with this gigantic stage of the waste Of waters the present flood ap- pears bit Insignificant, though 1t IS pretty bad at that.
 The danger line is given as S5 feet. 50 that 1t will be seen that in 1886 the disas- danger line. fothing like the destruction of life and prpperty had been known be- fore or since then, but the loss can in a measure be accounted for by the fact that the forecasts of the Weather Bureau
 i'm sbs GsScs ans ia as nearly pefect as possible, and the
 timely warnings have been the means of saving thousands and thousands of dollars and probably some lives, The kOi SSdStS 6cHt OQt Sdiu mat tit IAAit VI the flood would be reached Wednesday night when tle crest would be between forty-seven and forty-eight feet. To show how accurate this was the guage at the foot 'of Commerce Street meas ured a fraction over forty-seven feet at 6 o'clock yesterday evening. The river was at standstiil then and will proba- bly, begin tos fall slowly today.
 A stage of twelve feet above the dan ger line makes a pretty big river. and the stUhtQrae1 st fhatr rpnnav'S w0rth' VeS- terday. The subway leading from Com merce Street to the wharf was canal and boats went as far up as opposite the Windsor Hotel. The big ravine which wharf was brimming. the back water from the river being pushed up almost to the negro settlement known as "Dri- ver's Row." at the head of the Lower sembie log jam, the negro fishermen along the river front reaping harvest with the logs and driftwood coming down the swollen stream. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but wa ter on the other side. the clump of woods over in Fillmore County, of course stop ping the range of vision. though the Wa ter was all through these woods Every now and then from far across the waters could be heard the roar of shotgun; the reverberations gathing strength and volume as they rolled across the water SO that by the time the sound wave reached the Montgomery shore 1t resem, bled the deep boom of piece or neid artillery At intervals came these re- ports like minute guns-and minute guns ms they were In fact tolling the requiem oi hundreds of little rabbits. Great sport did numbers of hunters havethe ,n nIss trsmof Of hr,,shwood or on logs floating down with the flood. not having ghost of a shoW. hnss were slaughtered. In the afternoon. boat, load after boat load of hunters wouin land on the Montgomery shore: the bot tom of the boats piled up with a mass of rabbits. h,.,
 While the water has been very hign. still 1t did not get up enough to even en- danger any of the negro houses along the edge of the big ravine or even m loM S points along the banks of the .n upper ro,nnt ama and reliable service of the Weather Bu- has been the means of ss savans asnr shfS the s,,,ar bottoms In A few days from now the waters of the adsss AIsssma tselr vnr norma, % nnrS,t,on and the holiday freshet or 1901 1902 will have found it's finish