MUD TORRENT IN NEW GRANADA. ' 411 



tributary streams of the Sabandiga, and the force of the water 

 overcame the dam, and gave liberty to the imprisoned streams. 



" This great torrent did not consist solely of mud, but was a 

 mixture of stones, gravel, sand, and clay, joined with great masses 

 of snow, which fell in such a quantity, that even in three days it 

 had not entirely melted, for the mantle of mud which covered it 

 so protected it from the heat, that many have probably perished, 

 having lost their strength by the cold, who might otherwise have 

 extricated themselves from the mass. This terrific inundation has 

 been produced by the precipitating down of a piece of rock from 

 the frozen desert of Ruiz, in which the River Lagunilla takes its 

 source. The present aspect of the plain of Lagunilla is that of a 

 desert of sand or sea shingle, with some islets of wood and a few 

 great trees left standing by themselves, and the space of land 

 covered may be calculated, at least, at four square leagues, or, 

 perhaps, six leagues would not be an excessive calculation. The 

 thickness of the layer of mud varies, being greater towards the 

 higher part of the valley where the torrent was the deepest, so 

 that there it reached to the branches of the highest trees. In 

 whatever part it has been sounded, it gives a depth about the 

 height of a man ; but supposing that the medium depth be not 

 more than a yard, and the superficial extent four square leagues, 

 the quantity of matter poured down amounts to more than two 

 hundred and fifty millions of tons." 



With this account there is published a letter from Senhor 

 J. Uldarico Leira to the Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 

 ment, giving an account of the efforts made to assist the unhappy 

 sufferers, and also an acknowledgment on the part of government 

 of the services of the philanthropic citizens who thus assisted. We 

 append some extracts from the former of these two documents. 



" Lagunilla. 



" Republic of New Granada. Government of the Province of 

 Mariquita. Ibague, March 5. 1845. 



" On the 23d of the last month, I announced to your Excellency the 

 misfortune occasioned by the overflowing of the Lagunilla, and on 

 the same day I set out with Senhor Andres Caicedo and my 

 secretary, arriving at Los Peladeros on the 24th. There I dictated 

 all the orders necessary to liberate those who remained insulated 

 and exposed to certain death. In the midst of a melancholy scene, 

 which at each step offered me some new picture of suffering, I had 

 the consolation of saving more than eighty persons, who were in 

 the midst of impracticable sloughs, full of wounds and bruises, and 

 sinking through hunger and thirst. Assisted by Senhor Caicedo 

 and the public authorities of the canton of Mariquita, I was 

 enabled to provide subsistence for more than four hundred persons, 

 whom I employed in assisting the sufferers, who thus received 

 the little aid that I was enabled to give them. 



