IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
69 
which tore up trees twelve inches in diameter and floated rocks 
weighing hundreds of pounds many feet from their former 
location. Hay stacks were floated bodily against steel bridges, 
carrying them many hundred yards down stream. In the city 
of Burlington whole timber piles floated from the yards and 
blocked the entrance to the great sewer Wagons and farm 
machinery of all kinds went down the Mississippi river, 
together with many dead animals. The oldest settler had 
never seen the water so high in these valleys. Many houses, 
barns, sheds, etc., were flooded, and this in spite of the rapid 
fall of these streams, which here break through the escarpment 
to the Mississippi. 
The upper valleys broaden out with many fertile flats, often 
planted in truck and garden produce. The lower stream has 
low banks through the flood plain of the Mississippi. The 
rush of water necessarily did very great damage to both crops 
and soil. In many cases acres of ground which had been fall 
plowed were denuded of soil and left covered with sand and 
pebbles. 
Flint river, which formerly entered into O’Connell slough 
after paralleling its course for half a mile, cut a new channel 
directly through cornfields to the slough, tearing out acres of 
soil with crops and timber. A raft of logs belonging to the J. 
D. Harmer Manufacturing company went down before it like 
straws. O’Connell slough, which had been the storage place 
for logs in summer and steamboats in winter, was piled with 
the debris, which will cost $15,000 to remove unless the ice 
and high water next spring can scour it out. Manufacturing 
establishments situated upon the slough will otherwise be cut 
off from navigation. 
Hawkeye creek, a covered sewer through Burlington, became 
clogged with floating lumber and caused much damage to 
lumberyards, a foundry, the pickling works and the Murray 
Iron works. The stone apron at its mouth went out. The 
clearing of the sewer and the rebuilding of the apron will 
cause the city’s heaviest bill for damage. The county lost 
twenty-three bridges, some of which have been replaced at an 
immediate outlay of $16,000. The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & 
Northern railway lost nearly two miles of track and five 
bridges. The bridges which replaced the lost ones are fine 
steel spans, much better than the old ones, costing $30,000. 
The loss to land owners is hard to estimate, but must have 
