full the
awfulness of the scene. What has just been mentioned is a large waste of
territory swept as clean as if by a gigantic broom. In the other
direction some few of the houses still remain, but they are upside down,
piled on top of each other, and in many ways so torn asunder that not a
single one of them is available for any purpose whatever. It is in this
district that the loss of life has been heartrending. Bodies are being
dug up in every direction.

On the main street, from which the waters have receded sufficiently to
render access and work possible, bodies are being exhumed. They are as
thick as potatoes in a field. Those in charge seem to have the utmost
difficulty in securing the removal of bodies after they have been found.

The bodies are lying among the mass of wrecked buildings as thick as
flies. The fire in the drift above the bridge is under control and is
being rapidly smothered by the Pittsburgh firemen in charge of the work.
About seven o'clock this morning a crowd of Battery B boys discovered a
family of five people in the smoking and burned ruins above the bridge.
They took out father, mother and three children, all terribly burned and
mutilated. The little girl had an arm torn off.

Finding the Dead.

The work of rescuing the bodies from the mud and debris has only fairly
begun, and yet each move in that direction reveals more fully the
horrible extent of the calamity. It is estimated that already 1,800
corpses have been found in all parts of the valley and given some little
attention. Many of them were so mangled as to be beyond identification.

A regularly organized force of men has been at work most of the day upon
the mass of debris about the stone bridge. Early in the forenoon ten
bodies were found close together. There was nothing to identify them, as
they were burnt almost to a crisp. Several of them must have belonged to
one household, as they were taken from under the blackened timbers of a
single roof.

[Illustration: THE VILLAGE OF JOHNSTOWN BEFORE THE FLOOD.]

Soon after a man, woman and child were taken from the ruins. The child
was clasped in the arms of the woman, and the trio were evidently
husband, wife and child.

It is a most distressing sight to see the relatives of people supposed
to be lost standing around and watching every body as it is pulled out,
and acting more like maniacs than sensible people.

As the work progressed the number of the ghastly finds increa