18 NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan., 



Here and there we found the grass at this part still green and free 

 from blocks of ice or stone. In its frightful glissade from an altitude 

 of 3,300 metres into the valley, which is 1,900 metres above sea-level 

 (i.e., a drop of 1,400 metres), the glacier, with its burden of moraine, 

 must have acquired an enormous velocity. The Spitalmatte, together 

 with the adjoining Winteregg alp, was a lovely glen, a true oasis in the 

 midst of the rugged scenery (PI. I.). It was intersected by hillocks, and 

 on the west side, i.e., that opposite the Altels, ran up to the foot of a 

 rocky ridge (the Weissfluhgrat), which has an average height from crest 

 to base of 300 metres, and stretches from the Weissfluh on the south 

 to the Gellihorn on the north. At the southern extremity were four 

 chalets not far from the frontier of Canton Valais. Forests of mountain 

 pines cover the slopes towards the north and south. Last year 227 

 head of cattle, chiefly heifers, had been grazing there through the 

 summer months. On September 13 they were to have been 

 brought down to the lower valleys. Only three of them escaped 

 destruction by the catastrophe, which took place on September 11, 

 at 5.10 a.m. The three animals which were saved had doubtless 

 strayed in the evening in a southerly direction, where they were found 

 on the morning of the nth, wandering in the forest. 



On reaching the foot of the Altels, the avalanche, which up to 

 this point must have consisted of one vast moving block of ice, 

 measuring one-and-a-quarter millions of cubic metres, was reduced 

 to fragments, at the same time that the heat generated by the shock 

 converted these into a semi-fluid condition. Among the debris were 

 to be seen some blocks of considerable size, but only a few exceeded 

 two metres in diameter. With the velocity acquired in its descent, 

 this river rushed across the pasturage and up the western slope of 

 the valley to a height of 1,300 feet along the rocky wall of the 

 Weissfluhgrat. Not being completely able to surmount this barrier, 

 the main mass came surging back — like a vast sea wave recoiling 

 from the cliffs — with such force that some of it returned to a height 

 of one hundred feet up the eastern side. Isolated blocks, however, 

 were hurled clear over the ridge into the adjoining valley, the 

 Uschinenthal. 



The avalanche was preceded by a terrific blast of wind which 

 swept away chalets, trees, men, and cattle as though they had been 

 feathers. This is proved by the fact that, far above the limit reached 

 by the avalanche, hundreds of trees have been uprooted, and lie in 

 regular rows indicating with mathematical exactitude the direction 

 of the aerial current. These trees are for the most part of great size, 

 several, indeed, having trunks one metre in diameter. Such as were 

 protected by a large rock or a reverse dip on the hill-side have been 

 spared. Others, standing with only half their height above such 

 hollows, have had the exposed part blown off, while the subsequent 

 on-coming of the avalanche has not succeeded in tearing up what 

 was left of them, even when it has enveloped their base. This wind 



