Chapter 16 - Page 2

highlands. Now, in the spring, when the vast
quantities of snow, that frequently lie four feet deep in the forests, and
among the mountains and valleys of the interior, are suddenly melted by the
south winds and rains, freshets necessarily succeed, which have been known
to do great injury. The flats of the Mohawk, they tell me, are annually
overflown, and a moderate freshet is deemed a blessing; but, occasionally,
a union of the causes I have mentioned, produces a species of deluge that
has a very opposite character. Thus it is, that houses are swept away;
and bridges from the smaller mountain streams, have been known, to come
floating past the wharves of Albany, holding their way towards the ocean.
At such times the tides produce no counter-current; for it is a usual
thing, in the early months of the spring, to have the stream pour downwards
for weeks, the whole length of the river, and to find the water fresh even
as low as New York.

Such was the general nature of the calamity we had been so unexpectedly
made to encounter. The winter had been severe, and the snows unusually
deep; and, as we drove furiously onward, I remembered to have heard
my grandfather predict extraordinary freshets in the spring, from the
character of the winter, as we had found it, even previously to my quitting
home. The great thaw, and the heavy rains of the late storm, had produced
the usual effect; and the waters thus let loose, among the distant, as
well as the nearer hills, were now pouring down upon us in their collected
might. In such cases, the first effect is, to loosen the ice from the
shores; and, local causes forcing it to give way at particular points, a
breaking up of its surface occurs, and dams are formed that set the stream
back in floods upon all the adjacent low land, such as the flats in the
vicinity of Albany.

We did not then know it, but, at the very moment Guert was thus urging
his blacks to supernatural efforts--actually running them as if on a
race-course--there was a long reach of the Hudson, opposite to, for a short
distance below, and for a considerable distance above the town, which was
quite clear of stationary ice. Vast cakes continued to come down, it is
true, passing on to increase the dam that had formed below, near and on
the Overslaugh, where it was buttressed by the islands, and rested on the
bottom; but the whole of that firm field, on which we had first driven
forth that morning, had disappeared! This we did not know at the time, or
it might have changed the direction of Guert's movements; but I learned it
afterwards, when placed in a situation to inquire into the causes of what
had occurred.

Herman Mordaunt's bells, and the rumbling sound of his runners, were heard
close behind us,