The New York Herald Newspaper, March 10, 1875, Page 3

SPRING FLOODS The ‘Threatening Tey Mountain Still Intact. BOPES AND PEARS OF ‘TMB INHABITAVTS Explosive Experiments of the Scientists of the Neighborhood. Ereaking the Bonds Asunder with Nitro-Glycerine. Jiow to Make the Cleanest Town in the State. Description of Port Jervis and Its Surroundings. ¥ PORT JeRVIS, N. Y., Marvh 9, 1875, Port Jervis Is still in suspense. On the one hand, | ‘With a few days more of waiting weather the ice in the stream may crumble and slip away, bit vy bit, iu the rippling thread of water constantly active beneath it, till the whole mags passes harmlessly down the current, and then the town ‘Will wonder that there was ever any one so fool- isb as to apprehend any danger, and the supremely | Wise will laugh their loud guffaws at the silly fears of “nervous people.” On the other hand, if the thaw now sending thousands of little riils ‘nto the river continues or increases, and, Bull more, if the raim comes down heavily Jor tweive hours, there will come arush of water that will make this the cleanest town in the State. Then, of course, the afMlicted people of the town will be heard crying in the wilderness, and there ‘Will be no end of flerce speeches against the au- | thorities who let so many days go by, looking on | Bopelessly and taking no steps to avert the jong- Impenaing calamity. It is the turn of a feather tn which of these tunes the swect voices oi the | Peopie will be heard forty-eight hours hence. It 4s this painful uncertainty that troubles the mind Of the public fanctionary who has been called the “Mayor, but who is, in fact, the Presiaent of the Board of Town Trustees; for though on business | he ig9 bent he has @ frugal mind. His Honor would not object, perbaps, to 4 re-election *bext April to his present office; bur, then, if he | he should extravagantly squander a dollar and a- Dalf or two dollars of the public momey in avert- ‘ng calamity from floods that never came, it is evident that the sweet voices of universal suf- drage will not be for him, On the other hand, it he should fail to disburse these moneys as aforesaid, and the flood should come, perish the thougnt that any intelligent voter in a community of free people shoujd support @ public fanctionary so der- { elict in the duties of his office, ' THE THAW GOES ON. j Meantime the weather is pleasant end warm and the thaw goes on actively all along the lines, ) Enr)y it was bright and sunshiny, but during the | forenoon it became overcast, Every breeze came | Saturated with moisture, and it seemed as if the | apprenended rain, big with the fate of the Mayor | and of Port Jervis, was already here. But it | cleared again, and alter nocn the sunshine, @angerously warm, poured down on al! the hills, 1 sending the snow in thousands of rivulets down | every depression toward the river. | THE AUTHORITIES CONSULT. Atone P.M. there was a consultation of the authorities, two or three of the Town Trustecs, with their President and Mr. Chanute, the Erie | Engmeer. Councils of war never Might, and au- | thorities who meet for consultation only adjourn, | Netning occurred in the present case to mar the | beautifal simplicity 01 this rule; but happily the Oreadiul responsibility of deciding to do some- thing was taken from ihe shoulders of those dig- mitaries by the fact that there was nothing to do wwith, They might have decided to try naphtha, bot the naphtha is not here, It is ordered—ten varrels they say—and will come to-morrow. They | might have determined to try more nitro-glycerine | Diaste, but none of the shops in town keep the | article on sale. They have sent for some, and that | also has not come. lt is expected to-day. If it | comes some blasts may be made this eveuing, THE NITRO-GLYCERINE BLASTS. From what has hitherto been said in regard to the nitro-glycerine blasts here, one would sup- Pose that they expected to explode a charge of | ‘this compound somewhere near the middle of the | tee gorge, and then see the whole five miles of | packed ice majestically move away seaward. It | is objected that the blasts do not rift the ice in great seams—as they would masses of granite— | but that they merely crush Onely a small section. | It is odd that an objection like this should be made when the effect described is precisely the | one that is wanted to overcome the dimMcuity. | Av the lower end of the gorge the river is opon | tm some degree, and that is the channel by | which ine ice must go. Obviously it can- not go in very great masses, for the stream that moves amid the tce is narrow and | mot deep. Ten or twenty or thirty small charges, 0 disposed as to acton a defined section of the | Jee at the upper extremity of this open part of | the stream and to be exploded simultaneously, | seems to be the sort of operation called for, As | the explosive acts on ice oniy within @ smati | Fadius, the distribution of its force is the only | way toeffect a larger area. Ii tbis plan removed | ice it would doit by making it so small that . 1t would not obstruct the stream below, and the operation could be repeated a3 many times as might be necessary to open a way up to the | bridge, say balia mile, Withsuch a way opened 1t is very possible the river might do the rest. ! THE TOWN AND THE POSITION OF THE TOWN. Port Jervis stands on a level at the foot of steep Dills—a wide bottom land or aliuvial plateau, Be ind it are precipitous wooded heights, and it is | partly built om the tower terrace of these heights— the instep of the hills. At the point where the Delaware and Huason Canal ts opposite the level, | on which stands tbe greater part of the town, the | towpath !s about thirty feet above that level, but | at the higher part of the town the towpath ts ona level with the streets, From this elevation the | town slopes away toward tue edge of the river, | the distance trom the hilly to tne river varying at | diferent points; for the line of the hills ve- hing the town {is not parallel with the | Nine of the river, but tne hills retreat, so that the widin of the plateau is three or four times greater below than above, At the | lower part of this level and just where its width | Jorms the base oi a very respectabie triangle the base line is indicated by another range of high | Jand; vut atthe foot of this range and the hither | side runs another river, tae Neversink, which | empiies Into the Delaware at this point. The | tows, therefore, stands in an irregular triangle | formed by the Neversink, the Delaware and the line of the hillé behind it, which are spurs of the Shawangunk Mountains, On the further side of | both rivers are other hills of the saine class, clos- ing in the view at a distauce of from two to five aailes, By far the greater part of the town is on the Tower level—tuat is, ouly 4 (ew feet above the ele- vation at the bauk ofthe river. One of the streets of the town leads dir y to the bridge over tue Tiver, and the descent to the bridge ts merely per- Ceptibie. Gn this ievoi there are several hundreds Of neat frame houses, of no great vatue individu- ally, but sufMciently important as the collective property of a thriity people. Here are the boteis, and the shops with their stores of merchandise for the supply of an extensive neighboring district, Here are the tracks of the brie Railway on expen: sively constructed permanent ways, Incinding the SMLSUKWCAL HAL (iosses bug loW ground wear she | the river, their | than carried = with | last Friday or Saturday, and NEW Map Showing the YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, I $s Town, Limits Ice Gorge and Threatened by the Floods. 210RDjag A—B,—Limits of the ice gorge in the Delaware. KER C.—Loeation of the shanties flooded out on the 28th uit. —D.-— Highest land behind the town —elevation, 200 feet. shanties, and many miles of sidings and switches. Near by is the romnanonse for locomotives and other property of the company, the most iniport- ant of which 1s, perhaps, the extensive macaine sbops. B NATURE OF THE ICE FORMATION, For a distance of five miles near uere the ved of the Delaware River is Milled with ice packed from bank to bank, solid from the bottom to a poiut considerably higher than the water ever reaches. ‘There ig crammed into the bed of the river a mass of ice five miies long by abont 600 Ieet wide and perhaps sixteen feet through from top to bottom. ‘This 18 the ice dam, so called; but the idea o: a dam gives a very inaccurate picture of the real nature of this obstruction, Peopie fancy a dam as having always the longest dimension across the streai—a comparatively narrow strip of masoury or earth or timber or even ice placed diagonally to the current or at right angies with it. But here is an end to the ovstruction that is opposed to the advance ol the water, Aithough above [ have said the body of ice istnree miles long and 600 feet wide, yet speaking strictly in the figure by which the ice is called a dam | should say that this dam is 600 feet tong and three miles thick. If one atcempted to blast the ice to make &@ passage for the water he wouid have to biast out @ channel for three inties through ice not less at any point than sixteen feet in thickness, and often, peruaps, be- tween twenty and thirty fect. This tce 18 not an absvlutely solid mass, It did not ireeze originally in this iorm. It isethe uceu- mulated ice {tom twenty-flve miles tip the river, pushed forward by the rise in the water due to the thaw that occurred some days since—all hurled and jammed into (he bed of tne river at this point. Cakes of ice of all sizes; two feet by four and four by six and six by ten; all irom twelve to twenty inches thick—sometimes laid one upon another in stratified masses; sometimes standing edgewise or endwise, sometimes accumulated in one mass like a great jagged boulder—all there crushed and jammed each against the other, and enough water having flowed between to make ag it froze ap ai- most Compact mass of the whole, but how is {t that, oaving come from so far up rogress was arrested at this point ? hy is all the ice jammed here? At this place the Delaware resembies the famous Mincio, in the possession of a very awkward elbow. Rua- nig southeast to this place, the river here sud- denly cuts away to the south, or rather, perliaps, on a course west of south, In this elbow the jam began, There is DO reason why ice snould turn a corner, unless it comes down carried by acurrent of water, which itself turns atthe bend of the stream and takes the ice with it, But this ice did not come down in acurrent of water. There has not been any time this pind enough water in the Delaware to doat the hundredth part of ir. The ice came down somewhat as Homer's fellows went at the Trojans, ‘the man behind pushed on the man before.” Now the bindmost rank of ail in this case was started by the water far up stream and urged on by tt; Dut when a little pro- ess had been made another force was gained to which the primary one was trivial. Gravitation seems to Dave come into the game, and with the very considerable difference in the elevation of tie Tiver bed and the weight of the mass tats was quite suflicient. Under this influence, therefore, these enormous fields of ice came down the bed of the river, taking the turns readily where the curves were long aod easy, But reaci- ing the point where the river vurns almost at a Tight angle it found a joothoid for resistance. If all bad been open here and the bank low the ice Would have ploughed straightiorward across the feild. but the dunk which at this point met the advancing {ce at a right angle is high, and out in frontofit, ike @ Skirmish line vo distract tue euemy somewhat, lies a low, long, obstinate Li island, aud there, it is said, the river was iro: solid so that the ice had a good hold on the botrom. Against the obstruction bere, therefore, as (he ice came [rom above impeded by the vis a teryo rather Vhe water, it did not take the turn in the stream at the elbow, put heaped itself at we poimt where the bank faces the current, and masses of ice heaped there became the starting point of the obstruction tbat soon spread ali across the stream, In these small rivers ice 18 made In the winter when the water is tolerabiy high and toward spring, but before any thaw the water ts lower aifd there is an interyal of a foot, or sometimes two icet, between tue ive and the water. All the Surface ice im this case was breken down by the mass huried upon it, But it was not merely broken down to the water; it was pushed to tne very bottom, and thus, perhaps, the current tuat had gone under the ice was stopped altogether shis Interruption probavly assisted (ue food im the sireets of the town on those days. For five miles, therefore, the bed of tne river (s jammed with ice; where the water should flow there is no place tor the Water Save as a moderate quantity may insinuate itself uuder or percolate toe tnterstices of the mass. But any considera- bie rush of water wil not take so devious a route. lt was, then, of comparatively littie consequence that the bed of the river waa crammed with ice while the water was low; but how would it be 1 the water were suddenly to become high? Ifa sndaden thaw of the snow on the bills or @ heavy warm rain snould convert the now quiet current into a boisterous torrent what would become of tue water shut out from its proper channel PARTIAL ANSWER TO THAT CONUNDRUM, Such was the proviem in the minds of the peaple of Port Jervis for several days. As to what might become of the town in such @ contingency tuere Was @ partial answer one day, In the thaw that came at tne of February the water came over Ireely, and @ smal! deluge went through that part Of tue FOND Neargat the Flyer, YUE street parallel with the river became an impassabie torrent, ani! the current swept down it with depth and strength enough to carry heavy masses of Ice, that played ten pins with the shanties of a setile- ment ou @ sort of bottom at the edge of the river. ‘The street down which the water came on that occasion debouches on au open low piace at a turn in the river—the mouth, appa- rently of an old Jagoon, Across this low land ts constructed the embankment on which the Erte Railway runs, The crest of the embankment is ten or fitteen feet above the level of the bortom land, Tie bottom extends along the embank- ment and between it and the river ‘or neariy a mile, and is, perhaps, an eighth of a mile wide, Atthe upper end of tuis patch was a group of shanties, perhaps filty in number, the homes of Irish laborers and their families, jus¢ such fabrics as gave life a few years ago to the rocks along sixth avenue near the Central Park, only that Port Jervis does not seem to have enjoyed such a giory of goats a8 flourisued in the Squattertown of the metropolis. It seems probabie that the shanty 13 the mansion of civilization in its rudimentary state. It leaves the habitation of the troglodytes far behind; it is even a vast improvement on the wigwam of the savages or the lelt houses of the Tartars. It has four Walls, a floor and a ceiling, and doors, windows and @ chimney. All these distinguish it as in reality a house, bot it is not elegant. Itis patched togetner of such scraps of refuse lumber as Pat can gatuer here aud there— drift wood on the river, Or doors and windows economized from the spoil of demolished man- sions, Into this littie settlement of tats order of houses the water came rusting and the ice boui- ders bumping with tremendous force on the day in question. Fortunately it was noon, and the old women and little children were hustied out on the banks in satety. “Butifit had been night? I said. “Ah, thin,’ said Mrs, Moloney, “its meself that didn’t shlape for three nights thinking of it.’ So the settle- ment had been in a state of alarm. Mrs, Moloney was like the rest of — them, “fooded out” in a hurry, and now that the waters had subsided ‘she had come to scrape up in her home the little vits of ber prop- erty that were not “ruinated by the wather in- tirely”.-the usuai dilapidated chairs and crippled table of the poor—tue cracked glass and empty bottles, that would hold @ little watskey or the end of a candie as occasion might require, and, of more account than all, @ badly rusted stove. “And here,’’ said Ler small boy, in @ confidential tone, ‘is the paper lor the eye water. I found it on the floor.” An old eget Sg gathered up with @ perception of its value; the writing of some famous physician. esteemed worthy af least as much care as mignt bave been the writings of a famous poet. “Neighbor,” satd a farmer looking fellow, who certainly was hot @ neighbor to this same Mrs, Moloney; “neighbor, where did that house come irom ?'’ and he pointed to a house standing diago- mally to the others and completely open at one end, as if a section had been made to exhibit the anatomy of tue edifice to pupils tn architectars yell, now, do ye see,” said Mrs. Moloney;" “do ye see the place beyaat there by the trees, that’s open just the same way in the side? Well, now, it came from there.” She said this with the em- phasis of a person who confidently anticipaces that the fact wili seem incredivie. “Did the water carry it all ‘he way here!’ said the startied Investigator. “What else, sure |? In fact this was the proper end of the explana- tion, and Mrs. Moloney was not called up to accouat jor tne vagaries of the water. But the circum- Stances appeared to point to an undue triviaity on the part of “the douse’? that may have seemed to her to tmpugn the dignity of the whole seitic- ment, aad so she said deprecatingly :— “Well, d’ye see that nouse waa light; It was light; the peopie were moved vut three weeks ago. This new view of a human habitation that owed its weight entirely to its occupan's and their port- able property, and that was not only light because they Were gone, but had the aggravated lightness Ol their having been gone turee weeks, ended and crushed out entirely all the curtosity of that farmer, and le settled Uimself to silence and wis cud, ‘Two or three doors away there was a character. istic scene, On the dry grouud was a litle sied, with a box ou it, aad @ boy Of seven or eight made short trips from the inside of a wrecked shanty to that sled, aud each time brought out @ tia piato fall of cowl, All the accumuiated ‘uel of those huts Was there, and the little urchin had been sent out from some place where they had taken refuge so oring Up the Means of keeping teu wail. Incidents of this nature and the spectacte of the Tuined shanties were velore the people of Port Jervis for many days as an indication of what might come to ali lf tie water should once get high enough to sweep through the better pars of she Lown 4s it had swept through this draggied outskirs. [f was @ case in waich the experiment had been made for sieir in- struction tn wii; they had seen in little and on the whole at small exoense what might happen to every one; but, happily, human nature is too plastic to be @eeply im- pressed by the spectacte of other people's calam- ities, Thoughtiul people became contemplative to degree. The thoritr saited engi- who advised strict repose on sofa cushions, with folded hands; but the many were indifferent. At the hotel tabie the regular boarder discussed the subject With the casual visitor trom Paterson, and thought that the whole story was due to the exaggeration of the reporters for New York papers, He didn’t beueve there was guy danger, 9 1099 2000 5000 Saale of Feet CES. and te seemed to bea person of average inte’ gen: TH! POINT OF DANGER. Tt has been tncidentaliy noted avove that the line Of the bills benind the town tend toward the river at the upper part of the plateau; but they ap- proach only enough to narrow the valley, not close It, at that dangerous point, As we go up stream the level of the iand rises and the level of the water algo, 80 that the canal, which keeps the same level all the time, is thirty feet above the Bk atthe town, and oniy two or three above it ere, All the danger of these relations {s obyions, As the bed of tue river is gorged with ice the rush of the rapidly increasing water, go where it may, cannot go there. That place is taken, But ob- structed in its flow 1% naturally rises at the poius of obstruction, and it had put a few feet to rise to carry it over the walls of tie aqueduct into the canal, Once into the canal it has a direct way to the town, and goes roaring, foaming, bursting down that passage, skirting the hilis and Sweeping like a storm through the streets in the | upper part of the littie city, For awhile this es- cape into the canal seoms to relieve the pressure and avert the danger; It seems a safety vaive. and would no doubt operate as such if the rise of the river Was moderate ana the banks resisted we In these contingencies the water that might othe wise prove disastrous, would be carried salely away by this happily placed conduit. But tne rise must be moderate and the banks must resist. If the banks yield, all the water poured into the canal will feed the torrent tnat will leap out where the breach occurs; and if the rise 18 very great, whether the banks yield or bold, the whole rim of the aqueduct will become the crest of @ Wide cataract—a mimic Niagara, THE BARK GIOVANNI. ciated a a Os STORY OF THE WRECK BY THE ONLY sunvivon— | HE ENCOUNTER OF PICKET HILL—INCIDENTS DURING THE PURY OF THE NORTHEAST GALE. Bosroy, March 9, 1875 The only survivor of the ill-fated Italian Bark Gtovannt arrived in this efty this forenon, hayinz come through from Provincetown by rail, He is an Itaitan, and the story, which ne tells.only in nis native tongue, is as follows:— THE STORY OF THE WRECK, The first we hear of the Glovanni after her sall- ing is thatshe is spoken February 23 in latitude 35 50, longitude 51, by the bark Zephyrine, bound to Boston, with @ $60,000 cargo for Messrs. Tully & Co, Next in the storm of Thursday, March 4, sho ig reported as probably the bark on the lower Pickett Hull bar, stranded, with the seas making clean sweeps over her and beyond aid of human hands, Then comes the report’ that it is certainly the Giovanni ana that she is breaking up. On the following morning the telegraph from Highland light brings the news that she is wrecked and going to pieces on the bar, and only one of her crew, the steward, saved, Tne details of the last hours of the vessel and crew, until to-day, have remained a biank; only suca information being received as could be learned from the wreckers atthe Life Saving station, who iruitiessly essayed to render aid and who saw her wrecked. The only sarvivor, although he has three times before Visited this country, could speak Dut little English, THR SURVIVOR'S STORY. His narrative ia simple. Their run was seventy odd days from Palermo when they were iast spoken, and the usual northern gules of the sea- son had buffeted them avout, bat not seriously cripp! them, On the eighty-first day they e countered @ terrible northeaster, which dro them well down the coast below, in latitude 42 and took in shreds irom their spars ihe canvas upon which all depended, The snow was blinding and the sea running mountains high, when, at last, near the morning of Thursday, they sounded and found forty favhoms of water. Pa light they had beem endeavoring to see all night, and failing so find it, their reckoning Was somewnat contused. The struggle then was to work off shore; but the icy blasts, while they rendered the men almost helpless, were at the same time tear- log their sais irom the bolt ropes and sweeping her every moment more heipless toward the bar of the treacherous shore. Finally, it became ap- parent to all that she would soon bie ap where no wind, even as strong as this, could sweep or lift her, “The le: kept constantly sounding, and the crew each time, with horror more acute, listemed to the gradualiy lessening figures that were called from the quarter deck, To think of doing anything with tne auchors was like loping agaihst hope, aad siowly oa tg came, Hghting hard vo keep of the lee shore, RUNNING ON PICKETT WILT. About noon she encountered the outer Pickett Hill bar, bounding over tt with heavy strains and suaking her top bamper like reeds and skeius of thread, crash came d ing yo: of sails and entangling rauning and standing rigging in a hopeleas confusien. She was in every sense now crippled, and te only chance was that sbe would beat over and be Cast DPOD kG MERCH, WHETe iepAP OR DeArA gould MARCH 10, 1875.—TRIPLE SHEET. JER V of the baw and reported to the | Surrounding Country Muy > | save their hives. For this there was, however, no j chance, The inner bar was reached, struck and | two or three times, PEOPLE ON THE BEACTL R They could see peopte on the beach, for it was two o'clock in the afternoon, but no communic } tion between them could be had, As soon as she stranded she began setting, and the sea made a clean breach over her. The crew became demor- alized, and in the confusion the fiteen men o board rushed hither and tnither, a sea occasion. ally picking one off, The carpenter and steward, hardly Knowing what they were about, but re- alizing that the bombs of the wreckers lailed in their mission to take @ line out to them, and Knowing that no boat could live a second, seized 4 plank and ieaped In the water. The rest, de- lieVing that their only salvation would be throug ticking to the vessel, finally took to the rigging, ano saw (heir shipmates tossed about in the seething sea. When part way in the carpenter, bennmbed with cold, Was washed off the plank and suak in a moment’s time out of sight, THE ONRK MAN LEFT. Minutes to the one man who was left seemed like hours. Now @ sea lifted him masthead high aud then threw him into the trough of it, He wouid swim, shut out out from al, going forward, and then receding, but ali the time making slow prog- ress to the breakers on the shore, He Was kept in constant alarm; ther@ Was io question but what the plank would drift in, but the vitalone was whether he would be able to stick to it till it should finally ve dashed by the foaming water that so madly lashed the beacn. finally by those who were on the beach, and cheers | Of encouragement, blended with the angry voice | of the elements, hopes and fears, followed each other in quick succession, til! his faculties seemed failing him. Then, when the tale of his sufferings | and those of his shipmates seemed anout to be | sealed im the unwritten book of the mighty | deep, @ nuge roiler placed him within reach of a man who dashed into the skirts of the surf and pulled him almost inanimate upon the veach, Captain Warthen and bis men, with ail the tenderness and skill which their expertence | 3 THE WATER WE DRINK. - the Croton ina Di: Condition ? WAS PE ALS Dr. Henry Draper Upon the sity of Pure Water. Pesta calla aks DISCOURAGING TO TEETOTALERS. Like an awakening to find one’s house on fire,, or to be told of approaching dissolution, come: the announcement that the water which enters | our bouses and our stomachs 18 dangerous to life ti | circumstances there are city bas been filled with such rumors durin; the past ‘ew days, Diseases, whieh have fine the doctors at the hospitals, have been privately charged to the impurities of the water, Men, what could face aca nnon’s mouta, pour out their glasses of water at their breakiast tables and hesitate be fore they drink, The dread of subtie and noxious poisons, distilled from all the dan- gerous smd deadly weeds in the thousands of siuices between here aud Croton Lake, creates a bew and nameless horror in the inner conscious~ ness, Jo drink under the name of Croton watery the compound extract of the deadly nightshaaa aud the Darmiul dog fennel, and then to sit dowm With a bottie of anuiaorte, while the poison is feia ecrawiing Lowa! our vitals, would, doubtless, afford ouly merriment to the German servant, But to the practical New Yorker, who, as arnie, wants nor expects nothing ‘or which he does not pay, the experiment partakes of anxiety rather than curiosity. The dweiler on Pith avenue who gazes out of bis riage as he passes the distributing reservoir sees only the outside and marvels at tha facilities lor pure water which this city containga Were he, however, to alight and ascend thet steps he would see a great water tank almosa empty, at (he bottom of which were foul and siimyt boards and around whose sides were great spota ofgreen, Were Jules Verné to make the tour od the Croton Aqneduct from the lake to Centra’ Park he would discover more Dew species of faun: and water vegetation than be ever dreamed of 1: his marvellous books. The delicate, eyeless waters bug, Which insinuates itself into the most tingt ‘ubing and ends its dreamy, monotonous exisi« ence in a cup of codee, is there, The dright, green, threaditke fungus, which clings to the jotnt@ or rough projections and fans the water, like tha rags of the (ender nautuus, is there—ior a Jules Verne to find, IL was witha fil realization of the immediate interest which this subject possessed for tha majority of the HeRALD’s readers, that one of ita representanves started out yesterday in search o& information, A CHEMIST’S OPINION, Pro essor Heury Draper was hearing his ciass ny the laboratory of the New York University yester« day when the HeRatp reporter found him. A the end o/ the recitation hour he expressed hig opinion about the Croton with much good hamory and perfect clearness, “| am already apprised of the talk about th Croton water,’’ saia Dr, Draper, “but I bave sea yet had time to make an analysis, Under the besa from five to sevem grains of solid matter in every gallom | of Croton, 1 have derived this datw ‘from irequent anaiysts, That the presene disturbed condition of the water is due to the dex cay Of vegetable matter [can hardly think. The greenish tinge cannot be imparted by vegetable; matter at this season of the year. If vegetable de~ composition were going Om the color imparted would be brown, Dead leaves: and grass aren nevergreen, There(ore, if any greenish tint ia observable in the Croton it must be a saline color= ing Matter, While our water ts comparatively good there is no doubt but that it contains manM elements which are not materially conducive ta sound health. When we have more of these ing | gredicnts than usual the water becomes more une ber Keel field iast to it alter lifting and careening | He was descriedt | healthy in proportion, and there is, ol course, a certain limit, beyoud which the water becomes » poison dangerous, not alone to health, but to life." “then, you do ascribe many of the sudden dis teinpers Which seem to attack the inbabitants of great cittes directly to the impure water whiciw they use?” asked the HRRALD reporter. “Assuredly, 1 do,” replied Dr, Draper. “Thaty there would te a large diminution in the deatty rate, couid the inhabitants of great cities be fur. uisbed with pure water, scarcely admits of doubt.¢ Wuile we tremble through life about ‘eating oury peck of dirt,’ We drink bushels of it in the coursey ofa lifetime without ever grumbling. The city of Philadelphia, tor instance, has iong boasted bie, pure water, but any carious pedestrian who wil trudge out along the shores of the Schuyiktil wii fnd any quaniity of the most filthy, reekingy slaughterhouses, paper mills and glue factories Whose reiuse matter ig all eventually poured down the throats of tne brotherly lovers.” » “The question of a perfect sewage is, then, inti! mately related to the water service 7? “Lt certainiy 18," repiiea Dr. Draper. “A defecs tive drainage system at Croton Lake might afte & the health of many persons in New York.”” “The majority of the city’s population, Doctor, are practical people; unschooled in science any strangers to @ laboratory such as this, Wha shall they do to be saved irom the impurities ; Which more or less are found in all city water ("4 | suggested, resuscitated him, and when the morn- | | ing broke he could go in avd out among them. Ail | night the wreckers kept their vigus on the shore, | hoping that euch kucceeding norther would bring | With itasign of bating winds with quieter sea; | but the northeaster kept piping a8 furiously as ever, and seemed, as it howled through the barks hamper, like a Wild beast gratifying its Meodish | propensity tiilit should decide to terminate the | agony of tts victim THE BREAK OF Day. Friday morning broke, but with no chance of snc- soring those remaining tn the vessei. Six persons could be seen ciinging to the foretopmast rigging, and the vessel Was jast breaking up. The other eight persons had rendered their final account | and gone down into the sea. Nothing could be done for those who were leit, and with a sense of terror that riveted all who beneld it to the spot whereon they stood, they saw the toretopmast the other remaining spars, crash down upom what | little was leit of the hull of the Giovanni. | BODIES WASHED ASHORE. The bodles of whe captain and three of the crew, including that of the carpenter, have been washed ashore, and this morning were laid out in the vil- lage church of Provincetown. Three mules over- land from the scene of the wreck directions had been received to bring the remains oi the captain to this city, and it {s provable that it will be done, recovered, will be laid im the small graveyard Where rest others equally unknown to those Who maintain tus final resting place, CHE SURVIVOR CARED FOR. Upon arriving in Boston thls noon the survivor was taken in charge by the Assistant Secretary of the Board of Trade, and in due time was turned over to the care of the Italian Consul. M. | tavus M. Fenott, wio will provide tor him during his stay im Boston and send bim ty bis home ia Italy. YESTERDAY, The following record will show the changes tn the temperature for the past twenty-four hours ia comparison with the corresponding date of last year, as indicated by the thermometer at Hudnut's Puartmacy, HERALD Building :— 1874, 1875, SAM Average temperature for corresponding last year..... DETERMINE A young man named William Vand twomty-one years of age, employed in Nafew's sa- loon, on Exchange place, Jersey City, went down Into the cellar of the saloon yesterday afternoon, and taking a rope fastened ome ond of it to the Staircase, an into the loop he formed at the other end he put bis head. He then jumped of, and had been banging @oout @ minute when he was fis- covered oy Jonn Boyd, who cut fim aown and had bim take to his hoine, where medica! attendance = procured. EY nol eceed, It i# mot thought probabie be will | BULTIVE Die Injuries reel and snap like an overstrained cord, and, with | while the others, with their shipmates a8 they are | | the flannel, He had attempted ou the previous | by it. to Kill himseli by cutting big throat, but did | little light wine (claret or Rein wine); a tab) (L Mawel Oy 136d asked the reporter. “The simplest and mos¢ effectual method of treating the water is to boli it and let it stand before using it The steamers plying between thiw port and the West Indies discovered that when the passengers from the Sout were supplied with water condensed fromy steam the cases of dangerous diseases were greatly reduced in number. Water shipped frony any of the West Indian ports, during the fever season, contains more or less the germs of that ory kindred diseases, These observations bhava encouraged the introduction of steam condensers on ail vessels in the trade, The great mortality on sailing vessels, where condensed water cannoy be obtained, Is a matter of record. I would say toy everybody to boil the water in order to destroy aly germs of disease, Futers are the next bests appliance.’’ AN ENGINEER'S OPINION. Mr. Jonn C. Campbell, first assistant engineer og the Croton Waterworks, Was found in his office ing the City Hall. i “Is there anything the matter with the Crotom water?’ anxiously asked @ HERALD man, “Not that I have been able to discover yet,” rea plied Mr. Campbell. ‘The peculiar taste, waich U have heard so much about, | am compelied to say; 1 canvot detect, although 1 have been ‘sampling tof Straight’ all day. Between you and me, there im nothing the matter at all with the water, But thet people will talk, you know.’ “is the water getting low’? “It has been wasted terribly during the longy cold suap., People leave their water running uM order that the pipes may not treeze., We are now deilvering 110,000,000 gations of Croton per day, and this morning I noticed that the reservoir had fallen one-half of an inch las& Hight, This loss is equal to 6,000,000 gallons, There. isplenty of water up at the lake, however, anc there {8 a fair prospect of too mach ima few days Four inches of water is goinw over the dam to~ day.” “What kind of methods do you suggcst cleansing the water!” asked the reporter. “The Simplest remedies are always the best.'% replied Mr. Campbell. “A clean piece of flauney tied over the end of the tapis the simplest andj for the best diter in use, Beware of patent diters z ‘ney are ail Geiusions and frauds, The watery should be allowed to run rather slowly througiy When the cloth ts dirty, wash It. for the Urutoa water, it Will staad every red bie test.” NO USE TO FILTER, To Tax Epcron ov THE HERALD i= Filtering {g not a suiicient protection agains the present foul condition of the Croton, whicly contains an alarming amount of decaying vege table matter, Whole /amilles ara. being arta Use boiled water of melted ice, or add Ss Ol Waler suulges, SpOONIU! to w gly “,