THE FLOOD OF 1 843. 85 



heavily the waters of the flood were charged with earthy par- 

 ticles. The amount of mud which was carried down and 

 deposited in the Delaware, must have been incalculably great. 



The destruction of property did not end with that which 

 was caused by the wind and flood. The large stone barn of 

 Lewis Davis, in Haverford, was struck by lightning about 

 five o'clock in the afternoon, and after the most persevering 

 efforts to extinguish the fire which had been communicated 

 to the hay contained in the building, continued by the people 

 of the neighborhood, for the space of three hours, the barn 

 together with about fifty tons of hay and a quantity of wheat 

 and oats, was consumed. The loss of Mr. Davis cannot be 

 less than two thousand dollars, and that of another person 

 who had his property in the barn, about one hundred dollars. 

 The electric fluid with which the clouds appeared to be so 

 highly charged, took effect in several other places in the 

 county, but did not cause any serious damage, so far as the 

 committee are informed. 



On the night of the flood, the air was bland, with a light 

 breeze from the S. E. The moon occasionally shed its rays 

 through the floating clouds, while the light caused by the 

 burning of Mr. Davis' barn, was visible all over the county, 

 and constituted a brilliant though awful finale to an event 

 which in all time to come must mark an epoch in the history 

 of the county of no ordinary importance. 



For the accompaning Map of Delaware county, the com- 

 mittee are indebted to William H. Wilson, Esq., of Haver- 

 ford. It was drawn expressly to illustrate the subject of this 

 report, and was not intended as a map of the county to be 

 used for general purposes. In the construction of it, much 

 has therefore been purposely omitted which would be useful 

 in such a map. In fact, the greater part of this map was 

 reduced from a large, unfinished, manuscript map of the 

 county, drawn many years ago, by Mr. John Hill. This old 



