Assembly,) who, I think, was pitched upon, thinking he might have more influence with Council than another that might as quickly deliver the dispatches. For my part, I think the distresses of the Northumberland county people equal, if not superior, to anything that have happened to any part of the continent since the commencement of the present war. You will see the late accounts, in some measure, by the letters enclosed by Mr. M'Clay [Maclay ?]; I believe only in some measure, as the accounts is almost every minute arriving by people who have escaped the enemy, that, if true, are indeed truly alarming. The accounts this moment is, the town of Northumberland is evacuated; if so, then Sunbury will soon follow the example, and the same frontier will be where it was twenty years past. This day the township of Paxtang met to appoint a committee to act in conjunction with other parts of the State, to fix and lower the prices. As soon as the letters came to hand, Messrs. Elder, M'Clay and myself attended, had the whole matter laid before the people, that was no inconsiderable number, and proposed a scheme for volunteers to turn out immediately for the relief of the distressed people. We have fixed Sunday morning, at 8 o'clock, to march, when I doubt not at least fifty men will go that way, as the distress was so great. Everything has been done to encourage, but no promise of reward absolutely given. I know the difficulty of getting the militia out; this method in the meantime, in hopes to stop the progress of the enemy, if the volunteers can be allowed wages, or even their expenses, it will be acceptable if it cannot be done. A few lines from your Excellency, or from your Excellency and Council, will be truly acceptable to me, and I will make the best use of it in my power, as I assure you I have made every proposal in my power, and perhaps more; but as the greater number now going from this batallion is officers, I hope to make the matter more easy than if they were generally privates. If you write by the bearer

direct to Northumberland county, as I will be there two or three weeks from this date, if the country is not entirely broken up. Your humble servant,

His Excellency JOSEPH REED."

MATT. SMITH.

THE PAXTONIANS AFTER THE ENEMY.

Col. Smith again wrote to President Reed, on the 3d of August, 1779, informing him that he "had arrived at Sunbury with sixty Paxtang boys," and that "the neighboring townships turns out a number of volunteers. Cumberland county will give a considerable assistance; to-morrow at 12 o'clock is fixed for the time of march;" that "provisions is scarce," but that "they will follow the savages and hope to come at them, and if they do will give a good account."

THE ICE AND PUMPKIN FLOODS.

"The ice flood happened in the winter of 1784-85, and the pumpkin flood in the fall of 1787. During the ice flood, the low ground about Harris' graveyard was covered with water, and the ferry flats were tied to the bars of the cellar windows of the stone house (now Pennsylvania Female College.) On that occasion the water rose into the first story of Judge Carson's house, above Harrisburg, and a considerable part of the river ran around that house and down Paxton creek. The fences on its route were generally carried away. During the pumpkin flood, the ground about the graveyard was also covered with water, and the pumpkins, carried off chiefly from the Yankees in Wyoming valley, were strewed in profusion over the low ground below Harrisburg."-Preface to Napey's Harrisburg Directory.

It is evident, by the extracts appended below, that the dates given in the above statement are inaccurate. The ice flood above alluded to is thus described by the celebrated Dr. Benja

min Rush, in a letter to the editor of the Columbian Magazine for November, 1786:

"The winter of 1783-84 was uncommonly cold, insomuch that the mercury in Farenheit's thermometer stood several times at 5o below 0. The snows were frequent, and in many places from two to three feet deep during the greatest part of the winter. All the rivers in Pennsylvania were frozen so as to bear wagons and sleds with immense weights. In the month of January a thaw came on suddenly, which opened our rivers so as to set the ice a-driving, to use the phrase of the country. In the course of one night during the thaw, the wind shifted suddenly to the north-west, and the weather became intensely cold. The ice, which had floated the day before, was suddenly obstructed; and in the river Susquehanna the obstructions were formed in those places where the water was most shallow, or where it had been accustomed to fall. This river is several hundred miles in length, and from half a mile to a mile and a half in breadth, and winds through a hilly, and in many places a fertile and highly cultivated country. It has as yet a most difficult communication with our bays and the sea, occasioned by the number and height of the falls which occur near the mouth of the river. The ice in many places, especially where there were falls, formed a kind of dam of a most stupendous height. About the middle of March our weather moderated, and a thaw became general. The effects of it were remarkable in all our rivers, but in none so much as in the river I have mentioned. I shall therefore endeavor, in a few words, to describe them. Unfortunately the dams of ice did not give way all at once, nor those which lay nearest to the mouth of the river first. While the upper dams were set afloat by the warm weather, the lower ones, which were the largest, and in which, of course, the ice was most impacted, remained fixed. In consequence of this the river rose in a few hours, in many places, above thirty feet, rolling, upon its surface large lumps of ice from ten to forty cubic feet in size.

The effects of this sudden inundation were terrible. Whole farms were laid under water. Barns, stables, horses, cattle, fences, mills of every kind, and in one instance a large stone house, forty by thirty feet, were carried down the stream. Large trees were torn up by the roots, several small islands covered with woods were swept away, and not a vestige of them was left behind. On the barns which preserved their shape, in some instances, for many miles were to be seen living fowls; and in one dwelling a candle was seen to burn for some time after it was swept from its foundation. Where the shore was level, the lumps of ice and the ruins of houses and farms were thrown a quarter of a mile from the ordinary height of the river. In some instances farms were ruined by the mould being swept from them by the cakes of ice, or by depositions of sand; while others were enriched by large depositions of mud. The damage, upon the whole, done to the State of Pennsylvania by this fresh, was very great. In most places it happened in the daytime, or the consequences must have been fatal to many thousands."

A writer in Hazzard's Register for 1832, who claimed to be in possession of a record of all the great floods that occurred in the Susquehanna since 1744, says:

"The first regular flood on record is that of 1744; the second occurred in 1758; the third in 1772; the fourth in March, 1784; the fifth, known as the 'great pumpkin fresh,' happened in September, 1786; the sixth in the spring of 1800; the seventh in August, 1814; and the eighth in August, 1817."

ERECTION OF DAUPHIN COUNTY, AND HARRIS' FERRY MADE THE SEAT OF JUSTICE.

Dauphin county, named in honor of a son of Louis XVI., was created out of a part of Lancaster county, and Harris' Ferry made the seat of justice thereof, by an act of Assembly dated March 4, 1785. The act is entitled "An act for erecting part of the county of Lancaster into a separate county." The first,

second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth sections provides for the name and boundaries of the county.

The seventh section directs the Court to sit for the said county of Dauphin near Harris' Ferry, in the months of February, May, August and November, yearly, for the dispatch of the public business of said county.

The eighth section provides that it shall and may be lawful to and for Jacob Awl, Joshua Elder, Andrew Stewart, James Cowden, and William Brown, of Paxton, or any three of them, to take assevrance to them and their heirs of such lot or piece of ground as shall be laid out and approved of by the said commissioners, or any three of them, for the erecting a court-house and gaol thereupon, in trust and for the use of the inhabitants of the said county of Dauphin, and thereupon to erect a courthouse and prison sufficient to accommodate the public service of the said county.

The ninth section gives the commissioners power to assess and levy taxes for building the same.

The tenth section provides that the sum of money so raised shall not exceed £1500.

HARRIS PROPOSES TO LAY OUT A TOWN AT HIS FERRY.

Previous to the passage of the above act, Mr. Harris had made the following proposals to the General Assembly, which, perhaps, influenced that body to select Harris' Ferry as the seat of justice for the new county:

"PHILADELPHIA, March 3, 1784. Proposals of John Harris for the laying out of a Town on his Land, on the River Susquehannah.

That the said John Harris will immediately (if encouraged. by Government) lay out a Town of Two hundred lots, on the high grounds above his present dwelling house, the lots of about