210 RIVER LIFE. 



The overwhelming catastrophe vi^hich occurred on this river 

 in the spring of 1846 will long be remembered by those who 

 witnessed it. The following graphic account of this occurrence, 

 from the pen of Dr. West, was published in the Bangor Courier, 

 and will be read with deep interest : 



" To THE Rev. Dr. Tyng, New York. 



" Reverend and dear Brother — We have passed through a scene 

 within the last two or three days which will deeply interest and 

 impress you. Our city has met with a calamity unparalleled in 

 its annals, and perhaps uncqualed, in proportion to its population 

 and means, by any in our country. We have been inundated by 

 the river in consequence of what is called here an ice-jam. The 

 history of the matter is briefly as follows : 



" It sometimes happens that the ice in the river breaks up 

 above, while it remains too strong at the outlet to admit of its 

 passing down. The consequence is the accumulation of a dam 

 of ice which completely fills the river from bank to bank, and 

 heaps up sometimes to the height of from fifteen to thirty feet, 

 and thus forming a reservoir of water above it, which overflows 

 the banks and inundates the country around. 



" The present winter has been a remarkable one in the mode 

 of the formation of the ice. After the river was first frozen over, 

 the ice continued to form in cakes or sheets, and to flow down 

 the rapids to the still and frozen portions, and these were drawn 

 under. This continued until the submerged sheets were stopped 

 by rocks or shoals ; then the accumulation went on until the bed 

 of the river became consolidated to an astonishing thickness. 

 Around the piers of our great bridge it was cut through to the 

 depth of about fourteen feet. Thus the entire bed of the river 

 seemed to have become, at least except the channel, an almost 

 solid body of ice. 



" The greatest fears were entertained throughout the winter 



