3-052-421 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Winter in France: the Loire at Saumur, 1880. 'For many days past the inhabitants of Saumur, near Angers, on the Loire, have been under the most gloomy apprehensions in consequence of the enormous accumulation of ice in the river above the town, and it was feared that, with a sudden thaw, great destruction would be caused. The danger is now past, as the ice began to break up, and the river flood higher up seems to have subsided without doing serious mischief. We present an Illustration of the appearance of the solid mass of collected ice-floes. It was...a mile and three-quarters higher up the river, at Villebernier, where an island named Souzay divides the Loire into two branches...The ice-field extended nearly seven miles farther back to Montsoreau, near the confluence of the Vienne with the Loire, and it was piled or heaped with blocks of dirty-white or yellowish ice, generally seven feet higher than the ordinary level of the water...The island of Souzay, with the farms and houses upon it, has been overflowed, and the inhabitants were forced to leave it, walking over planks laid on the ice to the boats in the opened channel, whence they were conveyed ashore. Happily, no lives were lost, and the cattle on these farms were also saved'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.