FALL OF MOUNT ROSENBURG. J5J 



at a distance the vapour which covered the place where ... .1 

 the accident happened, and which was carried towards leagues. SuK 

 Zug, on the opposite side, with a strong sulphureous smell, phureous smell 

 The falling of the mountain extended from the summit to 

 the opposite side, beyound the Lake, a distance of three 

 leagues from north to south, and a league and a quarter 

 from west to east. There is nothing now to be seen but 

 melancholy ruins, through the whole of that country, 

 which presented the richest communes in the canton of 

 Schwitz, inhabited by a brave and faithful people. Only 

 thirty persons remain out of this interesting population. 



" Several circumstances attending this event are very 

 i^emarkable. Enormous masses of rock were carried Masscsofrock» 

 through the air to prodigious distances. The rocks in projected; or 

 falling, drew with them immense masses of earth, of from 

 ten to eighty feet in thickness ; and numbers of these 

 masses, together with large blocks of flint stone, were 

 thrown on the opposite shore, to the height of from eighty 

 to one hundred feet. One can scarcely believe ones eyes 

 when one seas these phenomena. Every instant one sees 

 houses, some forced on one side, others cut in two, and 

 separated at great distances ; and others carried more 

 than a quarter of a league from their foundations. 



'' The Lake of Lauwertz has lost about a quarter of 

 its extent, but its recovered part is filled at present by the Effect on the 

 waters of several brooks, which no longer flow. That ^^^• 

 -rich plain, which was so beautiful, now presents a moun- 

 tain of near 100 feet in height, of a league and a half in 

 length, and as much in breadth. 



'* Mount Rosenberg bears E. N. E. from Arth. It 

 is its western part which has fallen down ; that which was Account of the 

 on the side of Arth, after descending direct towards its "^o^otain. 

 base, was suddenly thrown to the east, and thus Arth, 

 Zug, and all that side of the Lake were saved. The 

 thickness of the mass carried down, appeared to be two 

 feet on the western side, and upwards of 150 on the east 

 side. The Knippenbuhl seemed to have announced this 

 misfortune so early as the year 1774, when it detached 

 itself from the mass of the mountain. The Isle of 

 Schwanau, elevated on a ropk, in the middle' of the Lake 

 experienced also some damage, particularly its church. 



The 



