The Connecticut Observer, And New York Congregationalist

Dantzic, Feb. 5.—Inundation of the Vistula.—A circumstance has occurred which may derange the corn trade this year, and put all parties interested in it in very unlooked for positions. In our last we referred to the dangerous appearance of the river, (the Vistula.) The result has been such as no one ever contemplated; and which at first none but eye witnesses would have believed. The Vistula, from the mild weather and the heavy floods from Poland, had partially broken up, and came down with great force, committing frequent damage to the dykes, bursting the sluices, and overflowing a district called the Binnen Nehrung. About four miles from Dantzic, at a spot called Neufahr, a stoppage of ice occurred, which diverted the water from the channel. At this point the Vistula runs near the sea, being separated by only one half to three quarters of a mile (English) of land, from which it, however, again diverges, and proceeds on to Dantzic. The channel being blocked up, the river, bursting across the country, flowed on to the sea; the intervening sand hills, of 70 and 80, and even 100 feet high, formed no opposition; they were speedily undermined, and the river rolled on, seemingly regardless of a lower channel on both sides, inwards of the downs or sand hills. In a few hours the cut through the sand hills was 1,000 feet wide, and the breadth of the river at the sea three times that width. Since then the opening is 2,000 feet, and the hills fall hourly down, as if cut with a knife. The river rushes fiercely through, making higher up the most fearful ravages in the dyke. The inhabitants of the populous district of Werder are hourly in danger of being inundated. By this cut the river saves a distance of about ten English miles. What effect this strange work of nature will have on the navigation of the river, the supplies of corn, etc., no one can tell. What the human hand can do in it, 'tis impossible to say: the old bed of the Vistula lies fast with ice hillocks, and it may be months ere they melt.