Baja is
120 miles below Pest.
The works here referred to were in parts a canal, to feed the old
Francis Canal, which connects the Danube and Theiss, in order to prevent
the stoppage of traffic, unavoidable at low water. The water and ice
brought down by the flood hurled themselves with such force against the
closed gates of the canal that they were burst open, and a masonry wall
7 feet in thickness and 250 in length was entirely overthrown. This
incident, together with many others, helps to illustrate the action of
water in flood as a factor in certain geological changes--the gorge of
Kasan, to wit, where the Danube has broken through the Carpathian chain.
In the course of little more than a day the waters at Buda-Pest had
fallen two and a half feet; but afterwards the fall was very slow
indeed, which circumstance greatly protracted the misery of the
unfortunate inhabitants of Old Buda and New Pest, the two districts most
seriously compromised. Joining a relief party, I went in a pontoon to
visit New Pest. Vast blocks of ice were lying heaped up amidst the
_debris_ of the ruin they had made; whole terraces and streets were only
distinguishable by lines of rubbish somewhat raised above the flood: the
devastation was complete.
On our way to the pontoon we passed a tongue of land which had not been
submerged, with a few houses intact. In this street, if it may be so
called, a crowd of more than a hundred women was collected; these were
mostly seated on boxes or other fragments of furniture that had been
saved; one and all had their faces turned towards the waste of waters,
where their homes had been.
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