THE MICROBE 



up a subscription for the ruined village, but I cannot 

 imagine how life went with them. For I have often 

 since that time seen alluvial valley land washed away- 

 after the same fashion in America, and know well 

 what it means. But in such cases it was merely por- 

 tions of large properties, and the loss was not irretriev- 

 able. But still the land affected remains useless for ages, 

 and how these unfortunates fared, to whom their 

 land was their all, I cannot conceive. 



43 



