30

THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.

seemed as if every limb and sense were beingscattered and only the soul was left in its solita-riness.

More than one imagined that he was the onlvsurvivor, that all the rest had perished in an in-stant. Many thought their time had come. Thethought of fire also arose in many minds, andthe fear of a death that might be more dreadfulthan that by the crash.

Without, the wreck was strewn among theiron beams and columns of the broken bridge

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and scattered in terrible confusion.

Ice and water and snow were mingled withrods of iron, and heavy braces, and beams, andthe debris of cars, and the bodies of men.

Danger threatened from all the elements. Ifthey remained in the wreck, the fire threatenedthenn with a horrid death. If they fled the fire,the water threatened to engulf them. If thevescaped the water the darkness and chill of night,the storm and the awful stunning, bewildered andappalled.

The very sight of the lofty abutments toweringhigh, impressed them with fear. The wild and