148 



FLOODS AT THE MANCUESTEK WATEKWOEKS 



siderably above their ordinary quantity of water. The lieavy 

 rain which was the cause of so many serious and destructive 

 floods commenced on the morning of Wednesday the 4th 

 of February, and, (with slight cessation on Friday and 

 Saturday,) continued with little intermission till the morning 

 of Monday the 9th. 



On the morning of the 4th the Woodhead Reservoir con- 

 tained about 24,000,000 cubic feet of water, being about 34 

 feet deep, and 47 feet below the top water level. The Tor- 

 side and Rhodes Wood Reservoirs were both empty. Early 

 in the day the rain had so swollen the streams that the 

 discharge pipes could no longer pass the water, and it began 

 to impound rapidly in all the reservoirs. By Thursday night 

 the water had attained its greatest height, the depth in the 

 Woodhead Reservoir being about 62 feet, and in the Torside 

 and Rhodes Wood Reservoirs, about 30 feet. The quantity 

 impounded was about 103,000,000 cubic feet in the Wood- 

 head reservoir, 14,000,000 in Torside, and 15,000,000 cubic 

 feet in Rhodes Wood Reservoir. 



From Thursday night the water gradually lowered till 

 Saturday night, by which time the water had been drawi> 

 down about 9 feet in the Woodhead Reservoir, and about 

 5 feet on the average, in each of the others. The quantity 

 discharged through the pipes of the Rhodes Wood Reservoir 

 during this period had averaged from 450 to 500 cubic feet 

 per seconds For 24 hours together, from Wednesday morn- 

 ing to Thursday morning, the flood had averaged 1,520 cubic 

 feet per second, being, when at its highest, from 3,600 to 

 4,000 feet per second. This was from a tract of country, it 

 will be remembered, of 15,400 statute acres, and amounts to 

 about 25 cubic feet, per second from every 100 acres of 

 ground. The ordinary flow of the stream varies from 15 to 

 30 feet per second. The water which was passed through the 

 pipes or was impounded in the reservoirs during this period, 

 wofi equail to a depth over the whole collecting ground of 

 2x0 inches. 



