a great sea, while the valleys were filled with roaring torrents. Great damage was done to property, particularly at Sioux Falls and along the Missouri. The troubles on the Missouri were greatly increased by a gorge of ice which formed at the mouth of James River, and backed the water up that stream until the city of Yankton was flooded; and then when the gorge finally broke, it carried away the town of Vermilion, which then was located below the hill. Fortunately the loss of life was very small, but the loss of property was terrific, and fell very heavily upon settlers who had not yet accumulated a reserve fund in cash to assist them over such an emergency.
Yankton was then a railroad terminus, and at that point began the commerce by steamboat up the Missouri River. Fifteen steamboats were on the ways at Yankton when the flood came. Great cakes of ice went hurtling against them, crushing holes in their sides, snapping immense hawsers, and tossing them into a common jumble. Green Island, a beautiful little village under the timber, across the channel from Yankton, was utterly destroyed, and since then the main channel of the Missouri has passed over the spot where the village formerly prospered.
