1843.] HISTORY OF DKLAWARE COUNTY. 363 



In the middle piirt of Chester township the heaviest rain was 

 late in the afternoon ; there being no wind it fell in vertical 

 streams. On the upper border of this township there was 

 some wind. In the township of Bethel, not far from the Dela- 

 ware state line, a hurricane of great violence occuired between 

 four and five o'clock in the afternoon. The wind blew in oppo- 

 site directions, as was proven by uprooted trees. Two miles 

 further north the wind was still more violent, tearing up a large 

 quantity of heavy timber in a very small space. A valley of 

 woodland, bouTuled by hi<rh hills, had nearly all its timber pros- 

 trated, not lengtliwise with the valley, but across it, with the 

 tops of the trees towards the N. E. 



In the western part of Upper Darby the rain was very heavy, 

 but the storm was not so violent as further N. W. The heavy 

 rain, however, began about three o'clock, while in the more 

 easterly parts of the same township but three-fourths of an inch 

 of rain (accurately measured) fell during the day. In the neigh- 

 borliood of Chester it rained moderately through the day, with 

 one pretty heavy shower in the evening. 



In Birmingham, heavy rains commenced about noon — the 

 wind east or southeast. The clouds were dark and heavy, the 

 lightning sharp, and the thunder very heavy, " accompanied 

 with a rumbling noise in the air." The wind was changeable, 

 and blew with great violence. The rain ceased about four o'clock. 



The most remarkable circumstance connected with the rise in 

 the waters of the several streams, was its extreme suddenness. 

 In this particular, the flood in question has but few parallels on 

 record ; occurring in a temperate climate, and being the result 

 of rain alone. The description given by many persons of its 

 approach in the lower district of the County, forcibly reminds one 

 of the accounts he has read of the advance of the tides in the Bay 

 of Fundy, and other places where they attain a great height. 

 Some spoke of the water as coming down in a breast of several 

 feet at a time ; others described it as approaching in waves ; 

 but all agree, that at one period of the flood, there was an 

 almost instantaneous rise in the water of from five to eight 

 feet. The time at which this extreme rapidity in the rise of 

 the water occurred, was (in most places) after the streams had 

 become so much swollen as to nearly or ([uite fill their ordinary 

 channels. The quantity of water required to produce such a 

 phenomenon, was therefore immensely greater, as the valleys 

 of the streams in most places have a transverse section of several 

 hundred feet. The breaking of mill-dams, and the yielding of 

 bridges, and other obstructions, contributed in a degree to pro- 

 duce such an extraordinary swell, but we must mainly look for 

 the cause of this sudden rush of waters to the violence of the 



