FLOODS IN SWITZERLAND. 137 



under water ; others in ruins or absolutely destroyed. 

 In Tessin alone the damage is estimated at forty thou- 

 sand pounds sterling. 



A country like Switzerland must always be liable to 

 the occurrence, from time to time, of catastrophes of 

 this sort. Or rather, perhaps, we should draw a dis- 

 tinction between the two divisions of Switzerland 

 referred to above. Of these the one may be termed 

 the mountain half, and the other the lake half of the 

 country. It is the former portion of the country which 

 is principally subject to the dynamical action of water. 

 A long-continued and heavy rainfall over the higher 

 lands cannot fail to produce a variety of remarkable 

 effects, where the arrangement of mountains and passes, 

 hills, valleys, and ravines, is so complicated. There 

 are places where a large volume of water can accumu- 

 late until the barriers which have opposed its passage 

 to the plains burst under its increasing weight ; and 

 then follow those destructive rushes of water which 

 sweep away whole villages at once. It is, in fact, the 

 capacity of the Swiss mountain region for damming up 

 water, far more than any other circumstance, which 

 renders the Swiss floods so destructive. 



And then it must be remembered, that there are at 

 all times suspended over the plains and valleys which 

 lie beneath the Alpine ranges enormous masses of 

 water in the form of snow and ice. Although in gene- 

 ral these suffer no changes but those due to the partial 

 melting which takes place in summer, and the renewed 

 accumulation which takes place in winter, yet when 



