Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/189

 view, take the question of bridge building. The bursting of a sewer is undoubtedly a serious matter, but the overflowing of a river is more serious still. During last year, it will be remembered both in Australia and in Spain terrible floods occurred. Hundreds of lives were lost, thousands of men and women were rendered homeless, and thousands of pounds' worth of property was destroyed. In both cases and the coincidence is one which, so far as we know, has never been pointed out—the disaster was attributed to the presence of bridges which were so built that they practically formed dams. In ordinary conditions they did no harm, but when there came an exceptional volume of water, the structures prevented it from getting away down the proper channel, and the country was inundated, with consequences of the most tragic character. In the future, no bridge not already built ought to be responsible for such a catastrophe. Weather watchers and recorders will be able to tell the engineer what is possible, if not probable, and he will construct his bridge accordingly. However much, therefore, we may laugh at the meteorological prognosticator, we cannot deny that the work of meteorology is of the very highest utility.