342 CONCLUSION. 



" The road in South Union Street, opposite Mr Webster's house, is sadly 

 cut up. The gas pipes are laid bare, the holes in some places being 

 from six to eight feet deep. Then higher up, near Neslin Castle, there is 

 another immense hole, through which the water seems to have passed with 

 great force in front of a number of small cottages situated in a valley at 

 the back of the castle. But for the energy of one Gover, and some willing 

 hands he got around him to divert the current, the whole of these cottages, 

 in all human probability, would have been swept into the sea. There was 

 great distress here in the small hours of the night, and Gover took in 

 thirteen children and three women who were running about in the utmost 

 alarm in their night dresses. . . . We may say of Southend that wreck and 

 disaster was apparent on every side- — more, indeed, than we have had time 

 to inspect or have space to chronicle. 



" MiUtary Road, Castle Hill, White's Road, Donkin Street, Constitution 

 Hill, Russell Road, and, indeed, all the approaches to the hill, showed in 

 an especial degree the devastating effects of the storm. All the drains are 

 washed away, and the huge stones of which they were composed are 

 scattered about like pebbles, or thrown down into deep gullies, through 

 which the water rushed in its headlong course to the streets beneath. 

 White's Road, Constitution Hill, and Russell Road, look as if they had 

 been riven by an earthquake. This is no exaggeration. At the top of 

 White's Road, near Mr Buchanan's new house, the drain is washed away, 

 and just beyond there is a gully six feet deep, cut out by the fury of the 

 rushing waters. Then, below this, there are zig-zag cuts from four to five 

 feet deep, through which the water forced its course to the barrel drain 

 below. So great was the rush of the torrent here that the drain, becoming 

 surcharged, burst with a loud explosion, ripping up the road in all 

 directions, and nearly bringing down the wall near the theatre. The water 

 thus set free now careered on in its mad course, and burst through the 

 window into Messrs Anderson & Co.'s store, which was inundated to the 

 extent of nearly two feet. From top to bottom, White's Road is a complete 

 wreck, intersected as it is with holes and gullies varying from twelve to four 

 feet deep. 



" Donkin Street, near the Mechanics' Institute, presents the appearance 

 of a huge ditch. The volume of water here must have been immense. 

 The Mechanics' Institute is cracked asunder, and but that Mr T. Griffiths 

 lent some planks, and Mr Macgregor shored it up, it would have fallen into 

 the ditch below. Next to the Mechanics' Institute is a shed in the occu- 

 pation of Mr Sherman, in which some iron is stored, and the shock of the 

 riven earth beside it brought down a portion of the wall. Then the water 

 from this quarter drove down such piles of earth into the passage near Mr 

 S. White's shop, and around the front door, that admission to the premises 

 was obtained with the utmost difficulty. 'The vaults of the Port Elizabeth 

 Bank were flooded, but beyond the inconvenience occasioned, the papers or 

 premises sustained no damage. On the whole, however, though Donkin 

 Street has suffered mvich, it is not so badly damaged as White's Road. Con- 

 stitution Hill escaped comparatively scatheless. 



" Not so, however, Russel Road. What has been said of White's Road 

 obtains here, save that the damage is even greater. It is a complete wreck 

 — so much so, indeed, that a man cannot pass through it on horseback, and 

 it is almost impracticable to pedestrians. The rush of waters here carried 

 away the walls enclosing Mr Powell's cow-house, and hurled a stone 500 lbs. 



