32 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



The official statements that I have as yet seen do 

 not give any account of the mortality amongst the 

 villages and outlying hamlets. I fear there must 

 have been great loss of human life in the submerged 

 districts, which were hundreds of square miles in 

 extent. As a rule, the only boats to be found in the 

 villages .were of a very primitive kind a sort of 

 " dug-out " being formed of the trunk of a large 

 tree, scooped out, and capable of holding three people 

 at the most. One can only imagine too well that 

 many lonely farm-houses, and even villages, were 

 surprised by the flood, and that their inmates found 

 no means of escape across fields and roads suddenly 

 submerged to the depth of several feet. In the whole 

 district under water, the population was computed to 

 be not much under 120,000 souls : practically the 

 greater number have been rendered homeless. At 

 Szegedin some 1500 people sought shelter in the 

 handsome school-house which, being a solid stone 

 structure, defied the waters. It will be evident that 

 even in the towns, places of refuge were difficult to 

 be found, for the official returns state that out of 

 " the 6566 houses in Szegedin, only 331 remain, and 

 many are not habitable." 



A great flood is indeed one of the most terrible 

 of all disasters. It is true, a fire leaves only the 

 charred embers of a homestead or a town, but when 

 it has burnt out the active mischief is at an end ; a 

 hurricane may sweep all before it, but when past, a 



