TIIE MOST IMPRESSIVE SIGHT 1 EVER SAW . 
4*7 
VIII. 
The 
Destruction of the k ** Covered Bridge. * t * 1 
By SIR HIRAM MAXIM. 
Illustrated by C. Cuneo. 
In the winter of 1858, when T was eighteen 
years of age, I attended the winter term 
of school at Abbott Lower Village, in the 
State of Maine. The school had finished, and 
the next morning 1 found that much of the 
snow had melted during the. night. 1 could 
not understand it. The rainfall was very 
slight, and appeared to be quite as cold as 
“ I TURN CD AND LOOKED BACK, AND AT THAT VERY INSTANT THE OPPOSITE END FELL INTO THE 
RAGING TORRENT, AND THE WHOLE WENT OVER THE CATARACT.” 
I had gone back to resume my apprenticeship 
in the carriage works of Daniel Flint. 
It had been an extremely severe winter, 
and the snow-fall had been very great, so 
that the fences dividing the farms were quite 
obliterated. The dear blue ice in the 
ponds and rivers was fully three feet thick, 
and was covered with from three to four feet 
of snow -ice quite as hard, but not quite 
transparent. 
At last the weather moderated ; there was 
a strong south wind, accompanied by rain, 
and I noticed that the snow had the appear- 
ance of steaming. By evening there had been 
a very perceptible melting of the snow, and 
the snow. 1 therefore obtained a quantity 
of water the same temperature as the rain, 
and poured it on to a pile of snow. I found 
that it did not appear to do anything except 
to make the snow wet. Why/ then, was it 
that this small quantity of rain melted such 
an immense quantity of snow ? This was 
the enigma. I could not understand it, and 
I wondered at the time if there was anybody 
in the world who did understand it, and If I 
would ever be able to do so. 
It was not until after I had read Professor 
Tyndall’s works and attended his lectures 
that I fully understood the subject that had 
so greatly puzzled me. The melting of the 
