Sketches of the Restigouche


The Restigouche Freshet and Ice-Jam part 1
Miramichi Advance May 6, 1897

        A freshet and ice jam of magnitude and destructive results heretofore unequalled in the locality occurred on the Restigouche River and its tributaries last week.

        Its Causes,

        were quite clear to close observers in such matters, and were the severe frosts of the early part of last winter, before there was any appreciable snow-fall, and an unusually warm period of a few days, with some rain-fall at the beginning of last week. The still hard-frozen surface of the country did not absorb the accumulating water, which ran into the main river and its tributaries, and greatly swelled them at a time when their ice was still thick and hard. When the ice was loosed from the shores it moved with the strong currents, and soon broke up and mixed with uprooted trees and other debris, passing downward with the flood, which overran the low-lying farms along the banks, causing much destruction.

        There were ice-shoves

        in the main river, the Upsalquitch and Metapedia, which were arrested for short periods as some shoal, island or bridge was encountered, the bridges generally giving way , until the swollen and ice-laden waters gathered in the vicinity of the mouth of the Metapedia for a crowning display of their destructive forces.

        Warnings from Up-River

        It was on Monday and Tuesday, 26th and 27th, that news of destruction came from up the Metapedia and Upsalquitch rivers, the three-span bridge about a mile above the mouth of the latter river having been carried away on Sunday night, while Blaquieres covered bridge, almost new, over the Metapedia, was carried away on Tuesday afternoon, just as Mr. Champion - a mill owner - had hauled a heavy steam boiler over it, for his mill at Champion's siding on the I. C. Railway.

        To be continued......................

        Thanks to Tim Jaques at the Tribune for this very interesting article

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