ou a just idea of our
situation. There is a narrow spot in the river, about a mile below the
city, at High Head, in which is a shoal, and from which the greatest
danger of a jam always arises, and it was this that caused the principal
inundation.

The next incident occurred at midnight, when the bells were rung to
announce the giving way of the ice. It was a fearful sound and scene.
The streets were thronged with men, women, and children, who rushed
abroad to witness the approach of the icy avalanche. At length it came
rushing on with a power that a thousand locomotives in a body could not
vie with; but it was vailed from the eye by the darkness of a hazy
night, and the ear only could trace its progress by the sounds of
crashing buildings, lumber, and whatever it encountered in its pathway,
except the glimpses that could be caught of it by the light of hundreds
of torches and lanterns that threw their glare upon the misty
atmosphere. The jam passed on, and a portion of it pressed through the
weakest portion of the great bridge, and thus, joining the ice below the
bridge, pressed it down to the narrows at High Head. The destruction,
meanwhile, was in progress on the Kenduskeag, which poured down its
tributary ice, sweeping mills, bridges, shops, and other buildings, with
masses of logs and lumber, to add to the common wreck.

At that moment, the anxiety and suspense were fearful whether the jam
would force its way through the narrows, or there stop and pour back a
flood of waters upon the city; for it was from the rise of the water
consequent upon such a jam that the great destruction was to be
apprehended. But the suspense was soon over. A cry was heard from the
dense mass of citizens who crowded the streets on the flat, "The river
is flowing back!" and so sudden was the revulsion, that it required the
utmost speed to escape the rising waters. It seemed but a moment before
the entire flat was deluged; and many men did not escape from their
stores before the water was up to their waists. Had you witnessed the
scene, occurring as it did in the midst of a dark and hazy night, and
had you heard the rushing of the waters, and the crash of the ruins,
and seen the multitudes retreating in a mass from the returning flood,
illumined only by the glare of torches and lanterns, and listened to the
shouts and cries that escaped from them to give the alarm to those
beyond, you would not be surprised at my being reminded of the host