e hotel
and dam it is more than likely that even more than eight inches were
precipitated in the places further up. These figures I hold tentatively,
but I am much inclined to believe that there was a cloud burst."

Six thousand men were at work on the ruins to-day. They are paid two
dollars a day, and have to earn it. The work seems to tell very little,
however, for the mass of debris is simply enormous. The gangs have
cleaned up the streets pretty thoroughly in the main part of the city,
from which the brick blocks were swept like card houses before a breeze.
The houses are pulled apart and burned in bonfires. Nowhere is anything
found worth saving.

It is not probable that the mass of debris at the bridge, by which the
water is tainted, can be removed in less than thirty days with the
greatest force possible to work on it. That particular job is under the
control of the State Board of Health. Every day adds to its seriousness.
The mass is being cleared by dynamite at the bridge where the current is
strongest, and the open place slowly grows larger. Not infrequently a
body is found after an explosion has loosened the wreckage.

So-called relief corps are still moving to and fro in the city, but the
most serious labor of many of the members is to carry a bright yellow
badge to aid them in passing the guards while sight-seeing. The militia
men are little better than ornamental. The guards do a good deal of
changing, to the annoyance of workers who want to get into the lines,
but they rarely stop any one. The soldiers do a vast deal of loafing. A
photographer who had his camera ready to take a view among the ruins was
arrested to-day and made to work for an hour by General Hastings'
order. When his stint was done he did not linger, but went at once.

Signs of Improvement.

"What is the condition of the valley now?" I asked Colonel Scott.

"It is improving with every hour. The perfect organization which has
been effected within the past day or two has gradually resolved all the
chaos and confusion into a semblance of order and regulation."

"Are many bodies being discovered now?"

"Very few; that is to say, comparatively few. Of course, as the waters
recede more and more between the banks, we have come upon bodies here
and there, as they were exposed to sight. The probabilities are that
there will be a great many bodies yet discovered under the rubbish that
covers the streets, and our hope and expectation is tha