INUNDATIOIT OP lOVJjOVSE. 331 



ext«nded like an immense lake, dotted with the bodies of human beingi 

 and animiils, and with articled of furniture, while roo& of houses and 

 trees here and there appeared above the flood. At 4 p.m. the clergy of 

 St Nicholas went in procession to the Chiu-ch de la Daurade to supplicate 

 the Virgin for mercy, and services were going on all day in all the churches. 

 About 100 corpses were discovered on Thursday and Friday, and were 

 buried, after being photographed, by their friends. One of the victims was 

 M. Wohlfart, a retired major, who had entered a house to save two children, 

 when the walls fell in and buried him. Bodies were discovered Ln many 

 instances in alleys and gardens. Five victims composing one family were 

 found in a first-floor room locked in an agonizing embrace. Those who 

 had escaped were to be seen stationed at the, entrance of their ruined 

 tenements, and giving information as to their fellow occupiers. In the 

 belfry of St Nicholas Church 60 persons took refuge. The flood reached 

 the altar table, and not far off a clerical student was searching all day 

 among the ruins of a large house for his parents and sister, listening 

 intently for any sound of Ufe. All the granaries on the banks of the 

 river are destroyed, and the entire quarter may be said to have disap- 

 peared, for all the houses still standing are damaged or tottering. The 

 new Carmelite Church was flooded, a lady who was confessing being 

 drowned, while the confessor effected his escape. The girls at a convent 

 school were rescued on Thursday. They had passed a dreadfiil night, going 

 up from storey to storey as the flood rose, and passing the time in prayer, 

 expecting every moment to be their last. The bodies of four women 

 were found, each with an infant in her arms. Another woman was found 

 by her dog. In one room ten victims were found, two of whom were still 

 breathing, and received the last sacraments before expiring. The older 

 houses, on account of the greater solidity of their walls, offered the 

 greatest resistance to the flood, and those supported by the old fortifications 

 were not carried away. Large numbers of persons have applied at the 

 Mairie for food and shelter. The troops rendered great service, displaying 

 the greatest courage and daring, and they have been warmly thanked by 

 the Municipality. The villages round Toulouse have suffered considerably, 

 and several persons perished. 



" It is announced that at Toulouse alone, 900 persons have perished, 

 and the outbreak of an epidemic is feared. The loss of life will never be 

 precisely known, for the Garonne has carried away many bodies, and some 

 have been recovered in the costume of districts 20 leagues distant from 

 Toulouse. It is believed that 600 houses have been swept away in the 

 town, and 2000 in the environs. 1200 soldiers are still eng^ed in clearing 

 away the ruins, and only a fifth of the inundated buildings wiU be saved. 

 Water for drinking was distributed yesterday in the town, which had had 

 none since Wednesday." 



" Nothing else," says a letter from Paris in the BaUp News, " is talked 

 about or thought of here save the floods. Politics are completely 

 suspended. The lowest estimate of deaths is now 2000, and the rapid 

 swollen Garonne carries away, unsuspected, many dead bodies to distant 

 parts. At Toulouse the river rose 15 feet higher than during the great 

 flood of 1855. Typhus fever is feared. A terrible mihtary measure is 

 proposed to prevent accidents in the crumbling suburbs of St Cyprien, 

 — viz., the complete destruction of the district by bombardment." 



A special telgram from Toulouse in the Standard, dated Sunday, 



