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The great flood of 1883 was of unprecedented 
magnitude, and so great a rise was entirely 
unexpected. The stage of water had not ex- 
ceeded sixty feet for thirty-seven years. By 
it the whole of those parts of Cincinnati and 
the towns on the opposite side of the river — 
Covington, Newport, and Dayton, Ky.— located 
nearest the water were inundated. In Coving- 
ton, in all, perhaps 350 houses were sub- 
merged. In Newport not less than 2,100 
houses were flooded. In Dayton and Bell- 
view, Ky., over 400 houses were under water. 
In Cincinnati, travel on many of the street- 
car lines was suspended ; nearly all the freight 
and passenger depots were submerged ; all but 
two of the railroads stopped running ; fifteen 
of the largest coal-yards were under water ; 
and the gas-works suspended, leaving the city 
in darkness. More than 1,500 business-houses, 
and nearly 3,700 dwelling-houses, were inun- 
dated, causing more than 2,400 people in Cin- 
cinnati alone to become objects of charity, for 
whom shelter, covering, clothing, and food 
must be provided. 
It is within bounds to say that one-tenth of 
the population in and around Cincinnati needed 
assistance of this kind. The Associated chari- 
ties superintended the distribution of aid to 
those suffering. From Feb. 12 to March 5 
this organization relieved 5,260 families, or 
24,111 persons. It issued 105,141 rations, and 
supplied 2,046 families with clothing, 1,916 
families with bedding, and 647 families with 
eoal. It also distributed 3,991 pairs of boots 
and shoes. 
The pecuniary losses that resulted from this 
flood can never be precisely known, but it has 
been estimated that along the two thousand 
miles of shores inundated it aggregated sixty 
millions of dollars. 
The town suffering most in proportion to its 
size was Lawrenceburg, Ind., which was com- 
pletely inundated. Itisso situated that at this 
stage of water the Miami River runs directly 
through the town, pushing houses from their 
foundations, and sweeping away every thing 
movable. 
The flood was due to two storms, — the first 
from Feb. 3 to 6, in which about 3.5 inches of 
rain fell at Cincinnati; and the second on 
Feb. 10 and 11, in which the rainfall was about 
2 inches. These storms extended to the head 
waters of the Ohio, and fell upon frozen 
ground ; so that the water could not soak into 
the earth, but was carried at once into the 
water-courses. 
The flood of 1884 arose from a single storm 
on Feb. 4 to 6, in which the precipitation was 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou. IIL, Noman 
unusual in amount and rapidity, being as much ~ 
as 4.46 inches in eight hours less than three 
days. This storm, combined with the warm 
weather, caused a general thaw over all the re- 
gion from which the feeders of the Ohio come, 
and sent large volumes of water into the rivers, 
besides the immediate rainfall. 
When we consider what an unusual combina- 
tion of circumstances is necessary to cause a 
stage of water exceeding sixty feet, and that 
such an occurrence cannot be ordinarily ex- 
pected more than about once in a quarter of a 
century, it appears most remarkable that two 
such floods should happen in successive years. 
A WOMAN’S JOURNEY TO THE KARAKO- 
RUM VALLEY. 
MADAME UJFALVY, who recently accompanied her 
husband to Kashmir and Baltistan, has published an 
interesting and lively account of the glacial region 
of the Himalayas, which she was the first European 
woman to penetrate. In the village of Shamba, in 
the Kulu country, on the occasion of a ceremonial 
visit to the temple by the rajah, it is customary for 
the priests to sacrifice a she-goat. Once undertaken, 
the priests may not eat until the sacrifice is complete; 
and the assent of the animal to its own death, with- 
out which it may not be killed, is supposed to be indi- 
cated by a trembling of the body. The unconscious 
creature is not always ina trembling mood; and to 
induce the same the priests squirt cold water into its 
ear, which usually has the desired effect. On one 
occasion, the authoress relates that even this failed, 
and the goat, outraged by such treatment, escaped to 
the rugged mountain side, and, even after recapture, 
refused to gratify its captors. Put to their wits, the 
priests finally plunged it bodily into the icy mountain 
stream which dashes through the village. Taken out 
again, it naturally trembled with its whole body; and 
the sacrifice was finally completed to the satisfaction — 
of all, especially of the priests, who had already im- 
agined themselves perishing of famine. 
Srinagar, capital of Kashmir, sometimes known as 
the oriental Venice, seemed less attractive than re- 
port had made it. The streets were narrow canals 
of stagnant and offensive water, in which swarms of  - 
ragged people disported themselves. Dirt was too 
evident to be ignored. Only when evening set in, 
and all contrast disappeared under the moonlight, did 
this singular and sombre town seem to harmonize with 
the magnificent mountains which surroundit. There 
are some hundred thousand inhabitants; and, besides 
the finest quality of shawls, they produce the finest 
and most artistic work in silver and copper. The 
passage to Baltistan from Srinagar traverses a singu- 
lar plateau fourteen thousand feet above the sea. The 
earth is bare, and undulated as if in waves. Itisthe 
bed of an extinct glacier, and surrounded by moun- _ 
tains, between which the wind rages, rendering it 
passable only in the three summer months. Even in — 
