150 FLOODS AT TUB MANCHESTER WATERW0EK3 



longer continuance ; but they must have been put to the 

 test in the middle of the night, in extreme darkness, when it 

 would have been impossible to have seen what was going on, 

 or how to meet or remedy any defect which might have 

 occurred. The work of destruction, at the worst, would have 

 been very slow and gradual, from the excellent manner in 

 which the embankment had been formed, and the retentive 

 and coherent character of the great bulk of the material. 

 Happily, there was no occasion for the trial. The sun went 

 down red and glowing with a murky grandeur, dimly seen 

 beneath the clouds, which, though breaking and clearing 

 to the west, were then pouring down their contents in 

 torrents at the place at which we stood. The rain gradually 

 abated, and nearly ceased before six o'clock, and I was satis- 

 fied that the worst was over and that all imminent danger was 

 passed. 



Heavy flying showers continued through the night ; but at 

 day-break the following morning it appeared to be again 

 setting in for continued rain. The wind up to this time, 

 during the whole storm, had been blowing steadily from the 

 south-west, but it now gradually veered round to the north, 

 and I then felt perfect confidence that the weather was taking 

 up, notwithstanding the lowering and gloomy appearance of 

 the morning. The rain subsequently ceased before noon, and 

 by the end of the week the weather was quite settled and 

 fine, the barometer gradually rising, and then remaining 

 steadily fixed at an unusual height. 



The water which was impounded in the reservoirs when 

 the rain ceased on the morning of Monday the 9th, was about 

 160,000,000 cubic feet, of which nearly 140,000,000 were 

 due to the rains of the previous week. By noon of the 13th 

 the whole of this water had been discharged, and the reser- 

 voirs brought down to the same condition in which they were 

 on the morning of the ,Srd, when the rain commenced. The 

 quantity discharged through the pipes of the Rhodes Wood 



