The first injury to the city was from the breaking away of a small section of the jam, which came down and pressed against the ice on our banks.  By this, twenty houses in one immediate neighborhood, on the west bank of the river alone, were at once inundated, but without loss of life.  This occurred in the daytime, and presented a scene of magnificent interest.  The effect of this small concussion upon the ice near the city was terrific.  The water rose instantly to such a height as to sweep the buildings and lumber from the ends of the wharves, and to throw up the ice in huge sheets and pyramids.  This shock was resisted by the great covered bridge on the Penobscot, which is about one thousand feet in length, and this gave time to save much property But meanwhile another auxiliary to the fearful work had been preparing, by the breaking up of the ice in the Kenduskeag river.  This river flows through the heart of the city, dividing it into two equal portions.  The whole flat, on the margin of the river, is covered with stores and public buildings, and is the place of merchandise for the city.  The Kenduskeag runs nearly at right angles with the Penobscot, at the point where they unite.  The Penobscot skirts the city on the eastern side, and on the banks of this river are the principal wharves for the deposit of lumber.

I must mention another circumstance to give you 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.