10

THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.

the Culver House, aud the Eagle Hotel, kept byPatrick Mulligan. It was one of the worstplaces for a rail-road disaster. Near the depot,not six hundred yards away to the eastward, wasa deep and lonely gorge. Across this the ill-fated bridge was hung. It was just at the pointwhere the trains from the East were likely toslacken speed. Below that bridge the stream randarkly. The only access to the gorge was by along flight of stairs which was at the time of thecalamity covered with a deep bank of snow. Xoroad existed to it, and the spot could be reachedby teams, only as a track was broken throughgardens and down steep banks and across thevalley and along the stream. A solitary buildingwas in this gorge. It was the engine house.Here were the massive boiler and engine whichwere used for pumping water from the stream tothe heights above, and so to the tanks at eitherside of the station house, in the distance. Situ-ated close by the river, and almost under theshadow of the bridge itself, this lone house be-came to the wrecked travelers a refuge from thefire and storm. On the heights above towards