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 of Pharaoh as they fled and sent up their cry from the Red Sea, as it returned upon them in its strength.

“The closing scene of this dreadful disaster occurred on Sunday evening, beginning at about seven o’clock.  The alarm was again rung through the streets that the jam had given way.  The citizens again rushed abroad to witness what they knew must be one of the most sublime and awful scenes of nature, and also to learn the full extent of their calamity.  Few, however, were able to catch a sight of the breaking up of the jam, which, for magnitude, it is certain, has not occurred on this river for more than one hundred years.  The whole river was like a boiling cauldron, with masses of ice upheaved as by a volcano.  But soon the darkness shrouded the scene in part.  The ear, however, could hear the roaring of the waters and the crash of buildings, bridges, and lumber, and the eye could trace the mammoth ice-jam of four miles long, which passed on majestically, but with lightning rapidity, bearing the contents of both rivers on its bosom, The noble covered bridge of the Penobscot, two bridges of the Kenduskeag, and the two long ranges of saw-mills, besides other mills, houses, shops, logs, and lumber enough to build up a considerable village.  The new market floated over the lower bridge across the Kenduskeag, a part of which remains, and, most happily, landed at a point of the wharves, where it sunk, and formed the nucleus of a sort of boom, which stopped the masses of floating lumber in the Kenduskeag, and protected thousands of dollars’ worth of lumber on the wharves below.”

THE PANTHER’S DEN.