The writer has endeavored to give an accurate general view of southern floods. While differing in some features from floods in other lands, they themselves are much alike. The description of a flood of to-day would answer with but little adaptation as a narrative of fifty years ago: and further details of particular flood scenes are unnecessary. Such great overflows are not common, the levees holding the river in check on ordinary occasions. Yet, one flood season deserves more than passing notice. CHAPTER XV. THE FLOOD OF 1890. “And rearing Lindis backward pressed, Shook all her trembling bankes amaine, Then madly at the eygre’s breast Flung up her weltering walles againe, Then banks came down with ruin and rout, Then beaten foam flew round about, And all the mighty floods were out. So farre, so fast the eygre drave; The heart had hardly time to beat, Before a shallow, seething wave, Sobbed in the grasses at our feet. The feet had hardly time to flee, Before it broke against the knee, And all the world was in the sea.” The great flood of 1874 is remembered as the most destructive of human life in the history of the Mississippi valley. It came almost without warning. The rolling river rose rapidly, and the levees broke in many places before the masses suspected danger. Hundreds of people were drowned; and as for the losses of property, no attempt was made to estimate the amount. Certainly it amounted to many millions. Perhaps only the Chicago fire could compare with it in this respect. Another great year of high water was 1882: but the damage done was smaller, as the levees had been heightened and strengthened. But the floods of this year, in area submerged, in long duration, in height of water, and in the pertinacity with which they were contested, eclipsed all records. There is no measuring the extent of the calamity. There is nothing in the recorded history of the Mississippi valley [Illustration: THE SCENE AT HIGH WATER.] to compare with it. In some places the gauges were completely overflowed. Levees that had withstood former waters, and had been strengthened since, snapped like whip-cords, under the tremendous strain. Early in the present year, the Signal Service warned the people of the lower Mississippi that very high water might be expected, as the snows of the upper Ohio region had been very heavy, while the unusually early spring would bring the flood water into the lower river at the time of heavy spring rains. There the levees were carefully examined, and every precaution against high water taken. But the people, though expecting high water, had not reckoned upon such a flood as came. The river rose above the great flood of 1874, passing all previous records by two feet, and reaching a foot higher than the levees had been built to sustain.