We thought not of hunger, though we had been laboring hard much of the night and all the morning. About ten o’clock there was a pause of fearful suspense. The rising seemed arrested--might it not be on the turn? For a short time there was hope; the pendulum vibrated each moment between our hopes and our fears. We hastened up the hill side--after all had been done which could be--to a spot commanding a view of the whole, to see our hopes or our fears realized. We perceived at once that the existence of all our works depended upon the Paine’s Bar dam above us. Would that stand the torrent? Should that maintain its position, we were safe; let that go, _all_ would be swept away! As we kept our eyes fixed upon this--it was a quarter of a mile above us--the black line of wall was suddenly broken, and the torrent poured through a small opening forced in the dam, and in a few seconds the river ran foaming over the entire length of the wall, which bowed and sank before the irresistible force. Then and there was heard a sound new and strangely startling to me. It was caused by large stones _rushing_ and _grinding_ under water, borne on by the tremendous power of the current. It might be imagined that the thousand submerged chariots and cars of Pharaoh’s host were driving impetuously over that river channel. As soon as the dam above us gave way, the water rose with great rapidity--two, three, four, six, eight feet--till it poured over the top of the aqueduct. Still it nobly stood, held in its place by the immense weight of the water which poured through it from the canal above. It was indeed surprising to see a thing so light resisting that mad and mighty force. It was but a moment! Gently and gracefully it yielded, swayed forward, and moved away with the ease and rapidity of a thing of life. Thus, in one moment, we saw the work of _one thousand and twenty-nine days_ done by the company swept away and rendered useless. Within five minutes of the time when the aqueduct disappeared around the bend of the river, a meeting of the company was called, and a resolution presented to proceed with our work by means of wing-dams.