THE GREAT STORM. Wrecks on the Atlantic Coast-Snow-Bound Trains.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 141, 13 February 1886, Page 4

THE GREAT STORM. Wrecks on the Atlantic Coast-Snow-Bound Trains.

A New York despatch of January 11 gays:— Ever since last Tuesday the country east of the Rocky mountains has had a stormy time of it. Kain, snow or a gale of wind has visited every part of it, and a birdeeye view of it on Saturday would have repealed a stretch of enow from the gulf to the lakes and from Colorado to the Atlantic coast. Yesterday reports of disasters at sea began to come in. The steamer Britannic came in yesterday after an eventful voyage of ten days coated with ice. The gale struck her on Thursday, and for a long time the blinding anow made it impossible to see the length of the ship. The weather continued bad for three days, but beyond delay the ship suffered very little damage. The steamship Caracas, from Laguayra, was caught in the storm on Saturday, and the seamen suffered severely from the extreme cold, several being badly frostbitten. The Sound steamers were delayed eight hours by head winds on Saturday night. Saturday's storm on the Massachusetts coast was the most difaatrous one for many years, The cold was intense, and the storm so furious that few vessels expoeed to the blast could live. Thirty vessels are known to have been wrecked or severely damaged, but the sufferings of their crews will never be fully known. The schooner Juliet was wrecked in Boston Harbour and three of the crew lost. The schooner Joel Cook went down near Scituate, but her crew was saved. The schooner Isaac Carlton went ashore on Fcurth Cliff beach, but the half-frozen crew wa3 brought safely ashore. The schooner Millie Trim went to pieces near Boston Light and four men were lost, but the captain was saved. The gale was fiercest in Gloucester Harbour on Friday night, and the harbour on Saturday was full of dieablnd vessels. Off the eastern end of Cape Cod sixteen vessels were wrecked or badly damaged. At Eastport, Me., the gale was the fiercest in sixteen years and did much damage to shipping, though no loss of life is reported. The lifesaving Eervice all along the coast did excellent work. In the Blue Ridge mountains, near Deerfield, Md., fourteen locomotives, a passenger train, a relief train and several cattle trains are snowed up on the Western Maryland road. The snow continues to fall and labourers are unable to remove th 6 snow. Most of the locomotives were caught in trying to reach a passenger train which had run into an avalance of snow that had rolled down the mountains. Telegraphic communication is kept open, but the Eituation of the snow-bound passengers and train men is becoming serious. There are hopes, however, that the powerful steam-ploughs now at work many open the way to-day. Freezing weather is reported from various points south. A "Tribune" special from Jacksonville (Fla). of January lOfch says : Advices from the principal orange-growing portions of

Florida by telegraph to-day report great damage done to vegetables, oranges and other fruit orops by the cold wave which has prevailed for the last few days. The thermometer reached the lowest point since the great freeze of February, 1835, when all the orange trees were killed throughout the State. At Gainesville last night 17 degrees was touched and to-day the fruit on the trees is ruined, and tho oldest groves are seriously injured, while the young groves «nd nursery stocks are a total loss. At points further south oranges and other fruits have been greatly damaged. The weather became warmer to-night. The St. Lawrence river is rising six or eight inches an hour, and the streets of, Montreal, near the river, are under water that is freezing. In this city yesterday there was some snow, much wind and low temperature, but all lines of travel have nearly recovered from the effects of tho storm. Great suffering among live stock is reEorted in the East Liberty yards. Several cad of cattle are said to have died from exposure and many more are in a dying condition,, The Washington county farmers were taken unawares and whole flocks of sheep which had not been properly sheltered are reported to have frozen to death.