Spain has been visited with a sad calamity. The great
plateau of Castile having been denuded of trees, the storms pro- duce floods, and on Friday week entire provinces in the South were ravaged by the swollen streams, the loss of property, it is asserted, amounting to millions. In particular, an enormous mass of water falling on the hills around Toledo, suddenly dis- charged itself down the narrow valley of the Amarguilla. The rise of the pent-up water was so rapid, that the little towns in the valley were destroyed, and in one, Consuegra, 520 houses were swept away and three thousand inhabitants drowned. In one church the water rose 18 ft., the stone bridges have been burst, and the destruction of property through. out the valley is estimated at £400,000. The inhabitants, it is said, were warned to escape ; but landsmen can seldom be convinced of the awful weight of water in motion, or of the rapidity with which a confined river can rise, and always think they will have time to fly. They dread losing their property, too, and with reason, a flood always letting loose a wild spirit of plunder. After the Johnstown incident, it became necessary to lynch thieves ; and in Consnegra the dead and their property were mercilessly robbed.
