to m o v e out of doors. They were ultimately removed safely. There was a considerable destruction of property, and m u c h damage was done to goods piled on the wharf, and in several of the stores in Flinders and Little Flinders Streets. Allison and Knight's mills and Langland's foundry were forced to stop work, and several of the small houses were actually " u p to their necks in water." Boats worked for hire along the river's bank, and through portions of William, Queen, Elizabeth and Swanston Streets. T h e Western S w a m p was then a large swine-fattening ground, and some hundreds of porkers were sent swimming about, the greater number of which were carried out to sea, where the sharks, no doubt immensely enjoyed themselves on fresh pig. In several parts of the interior the settlers were severe sufferers, and the gardens and farms along the creeks and rivers near Melbourne, were denuded of cultivation. At the junction of the Yarra and Merri Creek, near Dight's mills (Studley Park) the river was up to thirty-six feet. In the mill there was a considerable quantity of grain stored, which was saved after m u c h toil and difficulty. Mr. Liardet, the mail contractor, brought an important ship-mail from Sandridge to Melbourne, by the joint means of a cart and a boat, for which important service both public and newspapers loudly sounded his praise. Narrow escapes and half drownings in the streets were of c o m m o n occurrence during the flood, and the following incident is mentioned because of its extraordinary sequel. Elizabeth Street was always the most dangerous locality, for there the water was at its highest, especially at the Post-office corner. A Mr. Wentworth was on some pressing business, and seeming to think rather slightingly of the roaring torrent, boldly stepped in ; but he had not waded m a n y yards when, his feet sliding from under him, he was swept away, and with m u c h difficulty rescued from drowning, near the intersection of Little Collins Street. O n being pulled ashore he was coatless, his struggling for existence, and the violence of the water having stripped him of his upper garment, which was whisked away, and never recovered. In its pockets were a large sum of money, an unsigned bond, and some memoranda, which shared its utimely fate.
Flood No. 5 — in 1848.
October 13th and 14th were inclement wet days, the "pelting of the pitiless storm" having been almost incessant during forty-eight hours. T h e low lands about the city disappeared under water, the Yarra rose as rapidly, and thefloodon the afternoon of the 14th was nearly as high as in 1844. T h e swamps and lagoons united, and Melbourne exhibited the appearance of a sea-girt settlement. South of the river the low brushwood towards Sandridge and away by Fisherman's Bend was covered, and the water was up amongst the branches of the trees. T h e Melbourne wharf was impassable, except a narrow strip of causeway, portion of a street improvement, running from the southern part of Queen Street in the direction of Coles' dock. T h e Royal Highlander, an hotel in Flinders Street, kept by a M r . Shanks, was completely islanded, and he put on two or three ferry-boats for the convenience of his customers, w h o were conveyed to and fro free of charge. T h e brickmakers as a matter of course, were again heavy sufferers. Early on the morning of the 14th one of them was awakened by the motion of his bed, and to his consternation discovered that it wasfloatingabout like a raft, in several feet of water. H e aroused his wife and two children, and it was little short of a miracle that they escaped with their lives. There were some tanners and curriers settled on the river bank near the present gasworks, and they had some hairbreadth escapes, little caring, so long as they saved their own skins, what became of a large quantity of other hides they were forced to abandon in their hasty flight. Batman's Hill was again an island, and as the rearing of pigs and poultry had grown into a local industry around the Western S w a m p , heavy losses were sustained by a class of people least able to bear them. At Heidelberg the water was within two feet four inches of the height of 1844, and damage was done there, at the Merri Creek and at Richmond. At Studley Park the force of the current tore up the piles supporting a punt established there by Mr. Tohn Hodgson, rendering it for the time unserviceable. During the 15th a considerable quantity of sawn timber (belonging to woodcutters) and limbs of trees were borne down the river to the great risk of the Yarra wooden bridge, which luckily escaped, and some 300 or 400 tons of the drift-wood were forced over the breakwater into the basin of the river. Here it was rushed by a number of wood-fishers w h o resorted to various expedients to get the flotsam ashore. Amongst the other waifs wafted along the Yarra, was a cradle, but it was soon found to be untenanted. T h e Mount Macedon road was then the most important highway in the district
