Year: 1875

A correspondent from Port Jervis


says:


Many interesting incidents occurred


in connection with the flood, but none so


thrilling as the following, which was the


frst precursor of the general inunda-
| tion


About seven O'clock In the morniua
W. IL. Nearpars and L.. D. Rose, two oil


the village trustees, went in sleigh,


with j. A. Buchanan, to Roses Tavern


on the Sparrowbush road, two miles
above here, to watch the rise of the riv.


er, in order to give timely warning tc


the people along the road and to this


place. The road runs within four feet Of
the river bank, which is fifteen feet high


There was no material rise in the river
when they arrived there, and the chan.
mel was clear Of ice for mile below the


railroad bridge at Saw Mill Rift. On a


high bluff on the opposite side of the


river, commanding view up the river


for several miles, a colored man living


in the vicinity, had taken position. The
gentlemen mentioned stood on the river


bank at Roses watching the gradual rise


in the stream. Presently the report of
one OF the heavy blasts of nitro-glyce-


rine put off in the ice gorge below Port
Jeryis, reached their ears, and the next


instant they were startled by the shout
OF the negro, which was heard clear
across the stream:
Yender she comesl Fo' God Almighty


sakes, boss, 80 way from darp
This was addressed to Mr.. Nearpars,
who had stepped down the bank nearer


the water. He instantly rejoined his
companions. Looking up the river they


saw that the avalanche of ice was indeed


coming. IL was rounding the bend in the


river half mile above, moving In wave
twenty feet high, not OF water, for not a
drop could be seen, but a surging, roll
ing, clashing wall of ice and drift. The
scene was majestic, but as the flood ad-
vanced and heayed great blocks of ice
high up on either bank the watchers did


not tarry to witness it, but hastily re-
entering their sleigh started with the
horses on a run to save themselves and
spread the alarm.


They had scarcely started before they
saw the ice lifting up in the river within
a few feet OF them, and almost within
the twinkling of an eye it was over the
bank and rushing along within three feet
OF the sleigh, and keeping pace with
them. Between Roses and Buckley's


there is depression in the road and the


river bank about a hundred feet. long,
which brings the height of the bank at
Iudt place uoWn 10 elSuC Ieet. Ine per-
sons in the sleigh saw at a glance that


unless they reached the gully and crossed
it before the ice the road would he


blocked by the cakes that would be


forced over the bank, and the three would


then be at the mercy of the great wave
coming down the river, and then but
stones throw behind them. Buchanan
raised up in the sleigh and, lashing his
horses with the whip, they Literally flew
over the snow. When they reached the
gully they had put but half the sleigh's
length ahead OF the crashing ice, anu it
began piling up to the very edge OF the


road, and one cake struck the rear of the
sleIgh, breaking the runner and narrow
ly missing Mr.. Nearpars. They reached


the other side OF the ravine and the high
er ground, and looking back saw the
road they had just passed over coYered
ten feet deep with huge cakes. The
monster wave, of whose approach they
had been warned by the colored boy, had
overtaken the less threatening flood, and
from its outer edge hundreds OF
tons OF ice had toppled over into the
road and lay like the ruins Of some gi-
gantic marble editice.