Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-10-03

passable current swept on either side.
No help could be sent to the individ-
uals who were cut off. Be
fore the day broke the lantern had
ceased TO wave. Whether the tree.
which, without doubt had been
sought for safety. gave way, or wheth-
er the imprisoned ones lost their hold
in the tree none can say. Neither
can any clue to their identity be oh.
tanned. So weird and uncanny did
the light swinging above the awful
flood appear, that had one or two
alone seen it, they might have been
inclined to attribute the sight to a
trick of an excited imagination. But
many eyes beheld the sight at inter-
walls during more than an hour. The
general impression Ia that some team
ster was cut off by the flood and as
cended the tree for safety.
BY o'clock yesterday afternoon.
the road between Watrous and the ap
proach to the big iron ..s'ldge over the
Mora had been repaired and train
and repair gang had been sent over
It. For four hundred yards the track
had been swept tway, and carried
bodily. ties. rails and rock ballast
some distance 10 the right For an.
otha~ hundred yards before the bridge
is reached. The water sweeps in its
changed course 1t Is hoped to get
The damage repaired to the waters
edge by this evening. Throwing a
temporary bridge over the stream will
require much longer time. This
morning Chief Click Jones took up a
flat-bottomed boat with which to
cross the river. The intention is to
build ferry to facilitate the moving
Of timber for pilng and cribbing
From a number Of men who waded
across the swollen stream and made
the trip TO Shoemaker. II Is learned
that the destruction throughout the
whole length OF the canyon Is dire.
North OF the bridge,at least four miles
of track Is out, and the second bridge
over the Mora near Shoemaker Is
gone and in number Of places the
rOadbed has become the bed of the
river. In one place the Mora flows
through box canyon with high walls.
The road bad heen built through this
canyon also but some distance above
the ordinary level Of the stream. The
whole track was lifted bodily out OF
this canyon and hurled mile and a
half further down on the Shoemaker
ranch. OF all the illustrations OF the
| through this section. that can be Civ
en-. this Is doubtless the most convin.
cling. No one could believe that any
possible agency OF water could have
| carried The track from It's rock bot
tom and out Of the long and narrow
box canyon How 1t was done cannot
be explained. That it was done Is
apparent
II would be possible to transfer
from Watrous TO Shoemaker, but
there are no trains on the other side.
The bridge train of NJ r. Williams
did not go down in a washout as re-
ported. but is helpless in the canyon.
No engine has been gotten south OF
Ration. The bridge near the city
! must he replaced. the bridge over the
Red River near Springer also put in,
two bridges near French repaired. the
track repaired in several places. a
dozen bridges gone over carefully, be-
fore trains can reach the Shoemaker
| canyon. whore the greatest flood dam
age is. This will require at least a
week. and until this great gap is
! reached from the north no transfer
can be made. Just as soon as the
trained bridge crews from Los Ange-