242 William Brown, Esq., on the Flood at Frastanz, 



during seven, the rain was nearly continuous. Every one 

 said that there had been no such rain for many years. The 

 usual consequences followed, the lowest valleys were flooded, 

 roads were rendered impassable, and more than one bridge 

 was carried away by the force of the current. The chief 

 injury was not done to the banks of the 111 itself, but it was 

 the subordinate valleys which suffered most. At the village 

 of Sattaens, a rapid stream had brought down a great mass 

 of earth, gravel, and stones, which completely overlaid some 

 gardens and fields, and altered considerably the public road. 

 But Frastanz, on the opposite side of the valley, was the chief 

 seat of the mischief, and to this I must now advert more par- 

 ticularly. 



Frastanz is a small village upon the left side of the valley 

 of the 111. A small stream, sufficiently large to turn the ma- 

 chinery of a cotton-mill (consisting of 8000 spindles), after a 

 circuitous course among the mountains, empties itself into the 

 111, a very little way below the village. This village is about 

 two miles above Feldkirch, near which is the rocky boundary 

 of the great original lake. The houses are partly built upon 

 the mountain-slope, and partly upon the nearly level part of 

 the valley. Mr Gamahle's mill is a well-built stone edifice 

 of three or four stories, at the lowest part of the village, and 

 where the ground is very nearly level. My first visit to the 

 village was on the 6th of September, when the rains had 

 ceased for nearly a week. We found numerous groupes of 

 people from the neighbourhood who had come, as we had, to 

 see the strange state of things. We first found that the 

 bridge, by which the public road was carried across the rivu- 

 let, had been raised very considerably, and the road was 

 steepened accordingly. The bridges in this district, even 

 those over the large rivers, are all of wood. The water had 

 spread itself over a wide surface, and was flowing with not a 

 very violent current over a broad channel. So far, I had 

 often seen in our own country, rivers, when in flood, covering 

 all the level haughs with their discoloured water. But here 

 the stream was bright and transparent, nearly as in its usual 

 state, and was evidently flowing at a higher level, not so much 

 from the volume of water being much augmented, as because 



