6S 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 
Mr. J. W. Merrill, editor of the Mediapolis New Era, vouches 
for this story: A large circular windmill tank, with nearly 
straight sides*, stood removed from buildings upon level ground. 
It had never been used as a tank and was dry Monday night. 
It had a semi-circular cover, which was open, exposing one- 
half the tank to the rain. The water in the tank measured 
twelve inches in depth on Tuesday morning. We will grant 
that some of the water in the tank ran in from the half which 
was covered. Yet, had it all run in — and it could not — there 
would have been a rainfall of twelve inches. If the tank had 
been perfectly level, would more than one-half the water which 
fell on the cover have entered the tank? 
In Dry Branch valley, below Latty, six miles south, lives a 
member of the county drainage board, a man whose judgment 
can be relied upon. He states that on Monday night an empty, 
straight-sided tin can which was used for mixing spray fluids 
for fruit trees, was left in open ground. The can was about 
fifteen inches in diameter and sixteen inches high. At 5 o’clock 
the can was full and running over. North of West Burlington 
lives a truck gardener, who left standing in the garden several 
sprinkling pots, whose open tops are half covered with tin in 
the usual manner. These ought to have shed one-half the 
water, yet daylight found them all with eight or- nine inches of 
rainwater in them. 
Other less reliable cases have come to my notice, where the 
hole of a barrel becomes the outlet for overflow, etc. The 
instances given suffice to show the character of the informa- 
tion which leads me to firmly believe that over an area of fifty 
square miles at least sixteen inches of water fell in three 
hours. 
The instances of incredibly rapid rise in streams, even when 
already in the flood plains, seem to corroborate the estimates' 
given above, while the records- at the Mississippi bridge at 6 
p. M. , August 16th, show a stage of four feet five inches, a rise 
of three feet two inches. When we remember that local rain 
seldom affects the stage of water noticeably, and take into 
account the limited area of the storm, we must readily see that 
something extraordinary must have happened. The rain 
extended some distance up the river, it is true, Clinton report- 
ing 3.01, Davenport 2.20. 
The erosion was well in keeping with the figures given for 
rainfall. Little idea can be conveyed of 1 he force of the water. 
