After the return of the _St. Mary_ to St. Louis, Captain La Barge, as was his wont, ran in the lower river trade the rest of the season. In the following winter, February 27, occurred the famous ice “break-up” of 1856 on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The winter had been very cold and the ice was three or four feet thick and the water low. The break-up was not caused in the usual way by the thawing of the ice, but by a rise in the river from above, which caused the ice to move before it had become much disintegrated. It was an appalling and terrible example of the power of a great river when restrained in its course. The following account is from the pen of an eyewitness: [Sidenote: TERRIBLE DISPLAY OF POWER.] “The ice at first moved very slowly and without any perceptible shock. The boats lying above Chestnut Street were merely shoved ashore. Messrs. Eads & Nelson’s Submarine No. 4, which had just finished work at the wreck of the _Parthenia_, was almost immediately capsized and became herself a hopeless wreck. Here the destruction commenced. The _Federal Arch_ parted her fastenings and became at once a total wreck. Lying below were the steamers _Australia_, _Adriatic_, _Brunette_, _Paul Jones_, _Falls City_, _Altona_, _A. B. Chambers_, and _Challenge_, all of which were torn away from the shore as easily as if they were mere skiffs, and floated down with the immense fields of ice. The shock and the crashing of these boats can better be imagined than described. All their ample fastenings were as nothing against the enormous flood of ice, and they were carried down apparently fastened and wedged together. The first obstacles with which they came in contact were a large fleet of wood-boats, flats, and canal-boats. These small fry were either broken to pieces or were forced out on the levee in a very damaged condition. There must have been at least fifty of these smaller water craft which were destroyed, pierced by the ice or crushed by the pressure of each against the other. [Sidenote: A DESOLATE SCENE.]