330 CONCLUSION. 



But at Toulouse, situated below the confluence of these two rivers, the 

 destruction of life and property was such as to cause thai to be scarcely 

 thought of, and it is with the name of this city that the inucdation has 

 become associated throughout the world, wherever it haa been beard of. 



Toulouse, like many other important cities situated on the banks of a 

 large river, may be said to be composed of two towns. It was in one of 

 these, the Faubourg St Cyprien, thai the flood created the greatest destruc- 

 tion of life and property. 



In one of the first telegrams received in England it was stated : — " The 

 St Cyprien quarter of Toulouse is a perfect sepulchre. 215 bodies have 

 already been found. The waiers exceeded the usaal height by nine mfetres, 

 or 20 feet, and the flooded quarters were for a long time inaccessible on 

 account of the extreme violence of the torrent. Several persons who 

 endeavoured to save life, including the Marquis d'Hautpoul, perished in the 

 attempt. There are upwards of 20,000 persons in Toulouse deprived of 

 all means of subsistence. The railway trafiio around the town is inter- 

 rupted. The disasters in other parts -of the south are equally great." And 

 subsequent communications confirmed all that was thus reported. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times gave the following particulars of 

 the commencement and progress of the flood at Toulouse : — " Up to Wed- 

 nesday nobody had any idea that, owing to the heavy rains of the previous 

 week, the Garonne would overflow its banks with such rapidity. On 

 Tuesday the river indeed was unusually high, and some slight damage was 

 e::pected, such as usually happens in winter when the snow melts, but had 

 enybody suggested precautions against disaster these would have been 

 deemed quite unnecessary. On Wednesday, however, the prospect 

 changed; the river became a torrent, and by 10 a.m. it reached the level 

 of the flood of 1855. It continued to rise, and measures were takei with 

 desperate ardour to hem in the waters, but the attempi was too late. They 

 invaded all the low-lying quarters of the town, and at 2 p.m. two of the 

 arches of one of the bridges and twenty houses were swept away, and the 

 swimming baths and lavatories moored to the banks were hurried down the 

 stream, dashing against the houses alongside in their course. At 5 p.m. 

 the water rose over the parapets protecting the populous quarter of St 

 Cyprien. In an hour later it was ten feet deep. Boats were hastily got 

 out to rescue the inmates of the falling hoases, but several of them were 

 carried away by the current and dashed to pieces or swamped. Two boats, 

 manned by eight soldiers, were dashed against each other, and sank in a 

 pool formed by the gardens of the Civil Hospital. Out of thirty persons 

 on board only one woman was saved. Several persons who tried to escape 

 from tie quarter on the left bank on horseback were carried away by the 

 flood and perished. In the evening the whole quarier of St Cyprien was 

 cut off from the rest of the town, the three bridges being carried away. All 

 Wednesday night were to be heard the crash of houses and the cries of tlie 

 victims. On Thursday morning the whole population was in the streets, 

 8.11 classei? vying with one another in their efforts to rescue the victims. 

 The town presented a heartrending spectacle; 5000 to 6000 poor 

 creatures, half-naked, bruised, and benumbed, were conducted on foot or 

 carried in vehicles or on litters to the military hospital ; many of them were 

 women leading their children by the hand. By, the afternoon the waters 

 had fallea six feet ia St Cyprien, but both above and below Toulouse they 



