Great Inundations

An nundatton in Cheshire, Engl.ind, A. D. 353. - Three thousand persons perlsh. Glasgow, A. D. 758.- More than 400 families drowned. Dort, April 17. 1421.- Seventy-two villages submerged; 100,000 people drowned. Overflow of the Severa, A. D. 1483, lasting ten days - Men, women and chlldren carried away in their beds, and the waters covered the téps of many mountains. General lnundatlon in Holland, A. D. 1530.- By failure of dikes; 400,000 sald to have been drowned. At Catalonia, A. D. 1617.- Fifty thousand drowned. Johnstown, Pa., May 31, 1889.- By the bursting of a huge reservoir on the mountalns, the town was almost entirely destroyed, and about 6,000 peraons perlshed. The water in lts passage to Johnstown descended about 250 feet. Tho theoretical velocity due to thia descent would be about 127 feet per second or between 86 and 87 miles an hour. According to the best accounts from 15 to 17 minutes were occupied in the passage to Johnstown, a distance of about twelve miles. Thus the average velocity could not have been far short of 50 miles an hour. The Ímpetus of such a mass of water was irresistible. As the nood burat through the dam it cut trees away as if they were atalks of mullein.