HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      79

this year was exceedingly wet. Very heavy showers deluged the country,
bottom and upland, on the 27th and 28th days of June, so that the use
of machines in grain fields had to be abandoned, as horses mired down
and had to be helped out, farmers resorting to the cradle and the rake
in caring for the crop.
    The flood of February, 1883, did not lack much of coming up to
that of August, 1875. The experiences of the population of the river
district were but repetitions of those of former years, intensified by low
temperature and hard freezing. Schools were dismissed and all com-
munication with outside territory cut off. There was much suffering.
and loss of stock from drowning and being frozen up in the ice, standing
in several feet of water, from which relief came only by chopping them
out. The distress of the ice-bound inhabitants was relieved by aid com-
mittees from Clay City and other points. The Clay City Independent
of February 9, said: “Notwithstanding the elevation of the track of
the Terre Haute & South Eastern Railroad across Big creek bottom, it
has been again submerged for a considerable distance to the depth of
one and a half or two feet. At one place the grade was completely
washed out, leaving the track hang as a connection by way of suspension.
    “We had no mail on Monday. No trains crossed until Thursday,
hence we had no freight arrivals during the interval from Saturday
to Thursday.
    “Cabins in the low bottoms have been filled up to the square, and
some wholly inundated. In many instances on the second bottom dwell-
ings have been filled to the windows in the lower story, the occupants
being driven to the up-stairs.
    “Owing to the cold weather and the ice, stock has suffered greatly.
The present indications are that more stock will be lost by this freshet
than by any other one known in this section.
    “The river is reported completely clogged with ice from the bend
below the railroad bridge down to the Old Hill.”
    Scarcely a year goes by without one or more such rises in Eel river.
The conditions and sequences attending them, from time to time, includ-
ing all those of more recent years, are very much the same. At times,
the actual loss in property and life is comparatively but meager. In
cases of sickness human suffering has been aggravated and prolonged
from want of medical attention and relief, and the burial of the dead
delayed, from the obstacles interposed. In extreme cases, the corpse and
the necessary train of attendants have been moved out by canoes and
skiffs. Very young and helpless stock—calves and pigs, etc.—have been
temporarily housed and cared for in the family quarters, in kitchen or
parlor—until the subsidence of the waters. Horses and other stock have
been stifled and drowned in their stalls from the sudden rising of the
flood-tides by night or in the absence of any one to release them. Small
game and vermin inhabiting the bottom lands, driven from their retreats
and haunts, congregate upon the few elevations, or exposed points,
especially the levees, where they may be taken with but little effort.
Scores of rabbits, at such times, are found pacing to and fro upon the
thrown-up embankments of the stream, awaiting their fate at the hands
of whomever may come along.
    Railroad traffic and the delivery of the mails have been repeatedly
interrupted at the expense of much inconvenience to the public and vexa-
tious detriment to business. In this connection may be related a reminis