NITROGLYCERINE. 
317 
"  Nearly,  if  not  all  the  local  freight  of  the  European  had  been 
delivered,  when  about  7  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  3d,  a  ter- 
rific explosion  occurred  on  board,  which  tore  away  the  upper 
parts  of  the  ship  and  blew  several  large  plates  oif  the  side.  The 
wharf  at  which  the  ship  was  unloading,  and  which  was  some  four 
hundred  feet  long,  was  literally  torn  to  pieces ;  the  superstruc- 
ture was  completely  demolished  to  within  a  hundred  feet  of  the 
freight  house,  and  hardly  a  plank  remained  in  the  entire  length 
of  the  structure  that  was  not  wrenched  from  its  fastenings. 
"  Immediately  in  front  of  where  the  vessel  lay  a  gap  was  cut 
through  the  wharf,  piles,  planking,  etc.,  all  disappearing.  The 
ship  and  wharf  both  caught  fire,  and  the  latter  was  saved  from 
entire  destruction  only  by  the  exertions  of  several  citizens,  who 
got  the  fire  engine  to  work,  and  after  a  few  hours  extinguished 
the  flames,  regardless  of  the  risk  they  incurred  from  another  ex- 
plosion  of  the  burning  ship.  The  Panama  Railroad  Company's 
splendid  freight  house  is  left  a  pile  of  ruins.  The  force  _of  air 
caused  by  the  concussion  seems  to  have  raised  the  roof — which 
was  constructed  of  iron  and  slate — upwards  a  few  feet,  its  own 
weight  bringing  it  down  with  immense  force  into  the  building, 
and  carrying  with  it  both  the  end  walls,  leaving  the  house,  ex- 
cepting the  side  walls,  which  appear  but  little  if  at  all  injured,  a 
mass  of  ruins.  ***** 
"  The  most  awful  part  of  the  catastrophe  was  the  dreadful  loss 
of  life  and  suffering  attending  it.  Of  the  number  killed  and 
missing  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  correct  estimate  ;  but  from  pre- 
sent data  the  number  may  be  safely  put  down  at  fifty,  and  is,  we 
fear,  more  likely  to  prove  over  this  number  than  under  it.  Of 
the  forty-one  men  comprising  the  crew  of  the  European,  nine 
have  been  killed  and  twelve  are  missing. 
u  The  scene  in  Aspinwall  after  the  first  explosion  cannot  be 
described — it  was  harrowing  in  the  extreme.  Whilst  the  ruins 
gave  an  air  of  desolation  to  the  place,  the  mangled  and  lacerated 
bodies  or  pieces  of  bodies,  to  be  met  with  in  every  direction  for 
a  great  distance  around  the  ruin  of  the  disaster,  were  heart-rend- 
ing, and  the  suffering  of  the  poor  mortals  crushed  and  bruised,  in 
whom  life  was  not  extinct,  was  really  dreadful. 
"  The  amount  of  damage  caused  by  the  explosion  is  roughly 
