322 ON LANDSLIPS. 



standing up in fantastic attitudes amongst the debris below, 

 some lying prone and some tilted up against one another in 

 endless confusion. 



I have said that the dip of the strata was about parallel 

 with the general slope of the mountain side ; but, towards 

 the bottom, the superincumbent beds of rock lying upon the 

 clay had, at some former geologic time, been greatly scoured 

 away, so as to leave there a comparatively thin and weak 

 buttress to support the enormous load above ; thus, when this 

 at last gave way after heavy rains, the whole mass suddenl}^ 

 came down together like an avalanche. 



The slijD came down in the middle of the day, while many 

 were having their mid-day meal ; and some few, who were 

 gone to a neighbouring town to market, had a remarkable 

 escape from the general destruction. 



But a peculiar incident occurred in the Schwanau See 

 lake. This lake is now about two miles long by three-quar- 

 ters wide, and in its middle there is a little island. On this 

 island in 1806 there stood a small wooden chapel, with its 

 paintings, images, and relics inside, and also a priest to look 

 after it and welcome the numerous visitors who, as the fashion 

 then was, came over in boats to visit it and leave their 

 offerings. When the slip came down at mid-day it suddenly 

 filled up a half-mile of the then lake, and this sudden dis- 

 placement of water raised an immense wave (I suppose 

 newspaper writers would call it a tidal wave, because it had 

 nothing to do with tides, like all those to which they give 

 that name), and this wave rushed along the lake, passed 

 over the island, bore off the wooden chapel, with the priest 

 inside, and broke, as an enormous breaker, upon the shore 

 at the other end, landing the little wooden chapel high and 

 dry more than 100 yards inshore. It is said that the priest 

 was frightened, but not hurt. 



