The Bore At Moncton

1895

A Curious Tidal Wave That Might Pose as a Miniature Niagara

We had long known that that curious freak of the Fundy tides, the "bore" or tidal wave, appears at Moncton, N. B. — and at Moncton only — with every tide, twice a day. As we stepped upon the wharf one of us said to the other, "See, there comes the bore!" And there it was, three miles away, beyond the bend across which we were looking, a long, white, level streak, cutting across the river from bank to bank.

Sighting by houses and trees along the shore, we could measure how swiftly it approached, and in a very few minutes it needed no such help to see that it came rolling on with the speed of a railway train, showing the low, tumbling outline of a broken "roller" on the beach. Nearer and nearer, with a sharp, hissing roar, we almost held our breath, waiting for the moment when it should pass beneath our feet. Ten minutes from the time we first saw it the moment came.

Looking down upon it, what we saw was a head of water, as though from a broken dam, stretching straight across the channel, and rolling, tumbling, foaming as it raced along, just as a great breaker races up the beach after its fall. Before it the surface of the river was low, quiet, rippling gently downward toward the sea. Behind the water level was nearly three feet higher and coursing up from the sea with the speed and fury of a miniature Niagara gorge. At the sides the foam was brown with mud torn from the banks, and all the plunging current that came after was turbid and dark.

We watched that magic white line receding, twisting and turning as the channel curved between the wastes of mud flat and moment by moment the level of the racing flood below us climbed higher on the piling. A group of boys who had been playing until the last possible second out on the flats scattered into trailing lines of black dots making for the shore. At last, when the white line had grown quite indistinguishable in the distance, we turned away. We had seen the bore. — Boston Transcript.

A Severe Rain Storm

New York, 1895

MUCH DAMAGE DONE TO BUILDINGS AND THE HIGHWAYS.

The So-Called Shelton Avenue Improvement Makes a Lake Under Mr. Downing's Residence — Railroad Trains Delayed for Hours by Land Slides.

Saturday's storm did much damage in the town of Jamaica by flooding cellars and washing away the road beds in many places. The roadways were ankle deep in water, and small lakes formed in low places. As usual with any heavy rainfall of late, the cellar under the residence of Charles Downing, corner of Clinton and Shelton avenues, in this village, was flooded to the depth of four feet, and the rear of the yard was also filled with water. A force of men were engaged all day Saturday freeing Mr. Downing's cellar from water.

The cellar and yard of the dwelling occupied by Mrs. Ditmars Johnson, on the corner of Clinton and Shelton avenues, were badly flooded. The water ran down Shelton avenue to Flushing avenue during the storm like a small river.

The volume was so great that for a time the new sewer on Church street was unable to carry it off, and the sidewalks on Ray and Church streets were submerged. Large ponds of water formed on Herriman avenue near Hillside avenue, the water in some places being from three to four feet in depth.

Hillside avenue near the railroad bridge at Hayestown was so flooded that it was impassable. The storm cesspools built by the highway commissioners were useless.

At Richmond Hill the cellars of a number of residences were flooded, and many of the highways were impassable.

At Springfield many of the roadways were damaged by washouts. During the gale which accompanied the rainfall the portable building in election district No. 14, Springfield, was blown down and wrecked.

Several washouts and land slides were reported on the Long Island railroad and trains were delayed.

At Smithtown the track of the Port Jefferson branch road was covered with dirt by a land slide to the depth of from two to five feet, delaying the first train from Huntington two hours.

The Rockaway road from Dooley's, at Springfield, across the meadows was impassable, the tide rising over it the greater part of the day.

At Hollis the roadways were flooded and numbers of people who started to take the early morning trains went home again. Woodhull avenue, which runs in front of the railroad depot, was filled with water, as were the low places on the Hempstead road to a depth of from three to four feet.

At Arverne-by-the-Sea when the residents awoke they found their back yards flooded. Streets and avenues were covered by the high tide. Breakers chased across the surface, while the waters almost reached the top of the Rockaway Beach trestle. Fishing stations suffered and small craft of all descriptions were floated from their moorings and badly damaged.

The storm flooded a great many places in Woodhaven. Among them were Mrs. Payne's dwelling. Sweeney's saloon floor was two foot under water. The Italian quarter on Ocean avenue was completely under water, the water entering at the front door and going out through the back door. Several children sleeping in the basement had a narrow escape from being drowned.

The Chester Park station of the rapid transit division was entirely under water early Saturday morning, and it was impossible for passengers to get on or off the cars there for some time. There is a deep hollow there, and the water was at least eight feet deep.

The South Side supply store on the old south road at Aqueduct was completely flooded. There was six feet of water in the cellar, and a quantity of feed, flour and pork was destroyed. The cow and chicken houses were also under water. The cow was rescued, but the chickens were drowned. There is talk of sueing the railroad for stopping up a pipe that was put in at this place to carry off the water.

The macadamized roads in and around Woodhaven suffered severely from the heavy rain storm. Several places on the Broadway and South plank road, also on Grafton avenue, were washed out, and will need considerable repairing before they are in proper condition.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.

Bruin as a Fisherman

May 1902

Old hunters say that the black bear does a good deal of fishing at this season. It is said that carefully studying the sun and approaching so that his shadow will not be cast upon the waters, bruin creeps cautiously to where he sees the telltale fins, and dexterously throws the fish out of the water with a sweep of his paw.

A couple of lads came across a different kind of bear at St. Mary's Lake, near Hull, Canada.

This one preferred having some one else do the fish catching for him.

The boys had got a good sackful of pike, which they had left near a stump while they amused themselves on a raft they had thrown together. They looked ashore after a time to see a big bear walking off with the bag of fish over his shoulder.

He paid not the least attention to their shoutings, having, as it transpired, taken the precaution of breaking the stock of their gun across at the grip before carrying off the fish.


Lovers' Thrilling Experience

Fred Tieman and Miss Rosie Beard, living a few miles below Evansville, Ind., in trying to reach a preacher's house to be married, were forced to cross a long streak of bottomland covered with about ten feet of water. The buggy was upset and the occupants thrown out. Tieman held his sweetheart in his left arm while he cut the harness, freeing the horses from the buggy. The lovers then held on to the horse's tail until the shore was reached, a distance of nearly a mile. The wedding ceremony was postponed for a day. — St. Louis Republic.

The Hero of the Brazos

1899

Near the city of Hempstead, in Texas, there lives a farm-hand who has proved himself a hero of peace, and whose name should be remembered by the people of his country with all the gratitude they willingly bestow upon the heroes of our armies.

One of the great rivers of Texas is the Brazos, a stream subject to vast floods, which often rise so suddenly that the people living near it have no time to escape the rush of the waters.

In early times a colony of Franciscan friars established a mission on a mound near the bank of the river. They built a church and a village, and taught the neighboring Indians. A hostile tribe, however, swept over the country, ravaging and burning, and there seemed to be no salvation for the friars and their converts behind the feeble defences of their mound. But of a sudden the waters of the river rose, and terrible floods swept away the savages and saved the little garrison.

Then the friars, so the story goes, saw plainly the working of the Lord, and they called the river which had enveloped them Los Brazos de Dios — The Arms of God.

But the Brazos is not always merciful. During the recent floods in Texas its waters played a mighty part in the destruction of life and property. One night, as the flood was beginning to overspread the farming lands, a young man named Fritz McGee was wakened by the distant roar. He rose, hurried out, and after some difficulty, secured a single frail rowboat and started alone on the work of rescue.

All through that terrible night be worked among the negro cabins scattered over the flooded bottoms, and before morning he had rescued seventy-five human beings, men, women and children, and had conveyed them to high and safe ground.

It is doubtful whether a single man ever before saved so many lives, one by one, in so short a time. Fritz McGee, farm-hand, rowing his fragile skiff through the darkness over the turbulent water, is a figure to stir the noblest feelings. — Youth's Companion.

Scenes During the Potomac Flood – Great Trees, Debris, Pumpkins

1878

Scenes During the Potomac Flood

The Washington Star has this account of the recent rise in the Potomac at the National Capital:

From the Virginia side to look up the Potomac was like looking up the rapids at Niagara Falls, except that here the water was almost solid with mud, and was loaded with timber hewn and rough, and pumpkins and other farm products. Wrecks of bridges and houses were rapidly driven on the boiling flood.

As the angry waters struck the piers of the bridge they were forced up almost to the quivering timbers, and then started again on their rapid race for the sea. Looking down the river the water was dashed and tossed into the shape of ocean breakers. Behind the piers it boiled and bubbled like the contents of some infernal cauldron, with a roar equal to that of a tornado. Great trees and hewn timbers coming down stream would sometimes strike the piers and be whirled into the air against the bridge. In one case a tree trunk about sixty feet long and almost two feet in diameter was swept crosswise against the pier, and in an instant was broken into three parts and swept away in the mighty current.

Among the debris were hundreds of yellow pumpkins sweet from off the cornfields on the bottom lands many miles above, and the scramble for them was lively, some of the skiffs coming in loaded with them. Men, women and boys could be seen going home a large pumpkin under each arm, and rows of them lined the bridge and shore.

The damage to crops on the river farms must have been considerable, judging from the vast quantities of hay, corn and fodder that were afloat. During the night several canal boats came down, it is thought, from Georgetown, and went to pieces against the Long Bridge. A small dwelling house came down about two o'clock, and striking near the north draw shattered and went to pieces. Another large one with a roof newly shingled came down the south channe1, and striking a pier went to pieces and floated away in fragments below.


That Colorado Stone Man

A Denver assayer gives this account of the origin of the Colorado stone man with a tail:

In August, 1875, five of us were prospecting in the vicinity of Pueblo. In coming upon a sandstone quarry, one of the party observed a sort of likeness of a man drawn upon the rock. The incident occasioned a deal of talk about ancient creations, and the idea of getting up a second Cardiff giant was then favorably discussed.

The party agreed to undertake the task and a stonecutter named Saunders, who had been working in the vicinity and known to be a clever hand at modeling, was at once sought out and an agreement made for the figure. While the plan was in progress one of the party in a joking way, said the thing ought to have a tail, as in ancient times men had tails six or seven inches long. It was decided amongst the party that the figure should be known as a petrified Aztec Indian, and they would resurrect him after six months and impose him on the public as such.

The stonecutter, not seeing the joke, set to work, and made the figure, with tail appended. The price paid the artisan was $135, and after he had completed the figure it was buried. The "Muldoon" was made out of sandstone and dried by the cabin fire, which partly accounts for the little moles on the surface. After the burial — two feet from the surface of the ground — the party went on their way to await the resurrection.

A few of the prospectors had got wind of the proceedings and were keeping an eye on the party, and so they dispersed in different directions. Finally they became scattered, some in New York and the remainder in different portions of the country. I had forgotten nearly about the matter when the discovery was chronicled in the papers.

Man Finds 31 Inch Carp Washed Out by Flood

Pennsylvania, 1915

31 INCH CARP

Washed Out of Codorus by Flood at Seven Valleys.

A German carp, measuring thirty-one inches in length, washed out of the Codorus creek by the flood of last Wednesday, was picked up in the meadow of Peter Lau, by him on Saturday. The fish is the largest one ever known to inhabit a stream in this section. Another carp was found on the same day by Mr. Lau, but it was only 15 inches long. The bigger fish is three inches thick and is attracting the attention of many Seven Valleys residents. The weight of the carp is fully 16 pounds. The carp is said to have been washed out of the Heathcote mill dam. Carp were caught there last season.

—Adams County News, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, January 16, 1915, page 3.


Philosophical

"You used to say you depended on the wisdom of the plain people." "Yes." "But now and then the plain people play a trick on you and neglect to send you to congress." "That doesn't destroy my faith in their wisdom. A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." — Washington Star.


Advice From Lord Bacon

Generally it is good to commit the beginning of all great actions to Argus with a hundred eyes, and the ends of them to Briareus with a hundred hands; first to watch and then to speed. — Lord Bacon.


Brought Home

A party of tourists were going through a small town, having the time of their lives, laughing and joking. One of them thought she would have some fun, and called to a little girl standing near, "Are there any shows in town?" To which the little girl answered, "Only the one you people are making." — Minnesota Minnehaha.

Plan to Irrigate Basin of the Nile

1920

Egypt to Benefit From Project Costing Millions

For many years projects have been under consideration for obtaining such a complete control of the waters of the upper Nile as will enable Egypt to develop its agricultural resources to the utmost and to secure the country against the dangers of excessive floods, while permitting the Sudan also to develop to some extent its own vast resources.

The works contemplated will extend over a generation and involve the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars, affecting the entire future of irrigation throughout the Nile basin.

The commission, it is reported, will consist of three members. An irrigation engineer nominated by the government of India as president and a British physicist nominated by the University of Cambridge, while to draw on the wide experience available in America on questions of irrigation and water supply, and still further to strengthen the independence of the commission an irrigation engineer nominated by the Government of the United States will constitute the third member.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 7.