368 Scientific Intelligence. 



Entire houses tumbled down, and four-wheeled carriages were hurried away 

 by the waves. Barks of the largest size were carried over the quays, and 

 shipwrecked in the middle of the city, where boats were ready to collect 

 the unfortunate inhabitants of the lower stories. A brig remained overset 

 in the middle of the street of the Grand Perspective. The parapets along 

 the banks of the river, which were built of enormous blocks of granite, 

 were opened in several places. The wind was so violent, that it rolled up 

 like sheets of paper, and carried off the plates of white-iron, which covered 

 the roofs of the houses. 



To the distance of five leagues from St Petersburgb, the rise, and the 

 fury of the waters, were not less remarkable. Near Catherinoff, a whole 

 village was carried away, and a number of country houses were destroyed. 

 At Cronstadt the sea everywhere rose fourteen feet, and the imperial 

 fleet of twelve ships and four frigates, which lay in the Roads, were torn 

 from their cables, and dashed upon the coast. A ship of 100 guns disap- 

 peared entirely. The wooden batteries were wholly razed on the side op- 

 posite to the sea, and those built with stone were greatly injured. The 

 gun-carriages, separated from the cannon, floated on the waves. 



These facts will enable us to form some idea of the extraordinary rapi- 

 dity of this torrent and its elevation. The following particulars will show 

 the extent of the devastation, and of the losses which accompanied them, 

 and of the number of human victims which perished. 



A whole regiment of carabineers, men and horses, was drowned. The 

 carabineers had ascended the roof of the barracks for safety, but they were 

 all swept away. 



At the foundry of M. Clark, four versts from the city, on the road of 

 Peterhoff, the workmen perceiving too late the progress of the waters, saw 

 their own habitations, containing their wives and their children, swallowed 

 up by the sea. More than fifty bodies were extricated at that place. 



The number of sufferers has been estimated at from 500 to 700, and the 

 loss at 150 millions, (of roubles we presume). Among these losses are 

 mentioned 15,000 tons of hemp, 500 oxen, 200,000 quintals of hemp, 

 2,460,000 lbs. of sugar. 



All these ravages, which have been compared to the destruction sustain- 

 ed by Moscow in the late war, were produced between nine A. M. and 

 three P. M. The rise of the waters was sixteen feet, whereas in 1777, 

 when a similar disaster happened, the rise was only fourteen feet. 



This phenomenon has been ascribed to one of two causes ; by some to 

 the effect of the wind in accumulating and pushing up the waters of the 

 river, and by others to some subterraneous convulsion. This last opinion 

 is supposed to be countenanced by the sudden elevation and depression of 

 the sea at Christiania, by the spontaneous breaking forth of new springs in 

 the Upper and the Lower Rhine ; — by crevices which have been opened in 

 the solid ground ; — by a slight earthquake which was experienced at Ports- 

 mouth and in the Alps ; and by the volcanic eruption of Donnersberg, 

 which, for the first time, discharged flames and ashes. 



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