104 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April 



namea. iliis catastrophe precipitated 

 about 12,000,000 cubic yards of rock 

 1,475 feet downward into the valley. 

 The debris ricochetted across the valley 

 and rolled 325 feet up the opposite slope, 

 where it was canted over sideways, and 

 then poured like liquid over a horizon- 

 tal plane of about 9,700,000 square feet 

 and to a depth of from 35 to 70 feet. 



One-half of the village of Elm was 

 overwhelmed, and it was so swiftly 

 cleft by the resistless mass that the line 

 was shr.rply defined, and one house was 

 cut in two. One hundred and fifteen 

 people were buried. One home was left 

 on the very verge, of which the doors 

 were open, the fire burned, the table 

 was set, the coffee was hot, but no liv- 

 ing Boul was left. The head of the 

 household was saved, but his entire fam- 

 ily, who wt-re out looking at the moun- 

 tain fall, were lost. The debris dammed 

 Tip a river, for which a channel was 

 blasted afresh. New soil was carried in- 

 to the valley, aud spread over the ruins 

 where harvests now smile again, and 

 the people go about their work as if 

 there were no such thing as an ava- 

 lanche in this bumbling and crumbling 

 world. 



The process of change in earth levels 

 in all lauds is illustrated in your un- 

 paved back yard or village street after 

 heavy rains. Each tiny rivulet no larger 

 than your little finger has its floods, its 

 narrower limits where it runs in its 

 square foot of harder soil, and is there- 

 by pinched sideways, its sudden shallow- 

 ing and widening where the soil is soft- 

 er, and the panic stricken ants or be- 

 draggled beetles are caught in their 

 miniature world and routed as men are 

 on a larger scale. Ten feet square of 

 back yard may illustrate the succession 

 of events which make seas shallower 

 and mountains lower. The surcharged 

 warm cloud gets a chill as it caresses the 

 head of some dignified peak, the sudden 

 condensation upsets the shower out of 

 the atmosphere's myriad cell buckets, 

 and the torrent rushes down the breasts 

 and limbs of the mountains so swiftly 

 that the surprised soil catches the spirit 

 of panic and forgets to obey gravitation 

 until it finds itself at sea and almost out 

 of sight of shore. That transfer of earth 

 leaves the hills thinner and deposits 

 that which makes the river or bay or 

 sea somewhat less deep. People live in 



tne lowiauas near tlieir grain and fruits, 

 and these thrive on the alluvium wash- 

 ed down by torrents and flood. That 

 theft of matter makes the mountains 

 bareheaded and puts the valley under 

 obligation to the storms which feed the 

 crops with plant nutriment stolen from 

 above. Like man, the harvests lift their 

 eyes to the hills, whence their help 

 comes. The mountains are being carried 

 into the sea, and man demands tribute 

 as they pass. 



The forces of nature and the elements 

 in battle, like the gospel, are levelers. 

 They bring down the mighty and lift up 

 the lowly. One of these days the earth 

 must be resurveyed. The aspirations of 

 the hills will have been reduced; the 

 depths of the rivers, bays and oceans 

 will be less. Men who journey by water 

 may return to the plans and proportions 

 that best suited those who built the ark, 

 and they may see that Noah knew some- 

 thing about shipbuilding, notwithstand- 

 ing our Americans, Auranias and Cam- 

 panias. David may have had a thought 

 of all this when he said, "The hills 

 melted like wax at the presence of the 

 Lord." Isaiah wrote, "The mountains 

 flowed down at thy presence." Ezekiel 

 said, "The mountain shall be thrown 

 down, and the steep places shall fall." 

 If those Alpine dwellers at Elm read 

 their Bibles, they must have thought of 

 these passages after they recovered from 

 their surprise. — Northwestern Christian 

 .Advocate. 



"Shootins the Moon." 



It is curious to remark how differently 

 men of different races comport themselves 

 in the presence of identical emergencies 

 When an Irishman, for example, finds 

 that he cannot pay his rent, he insists on 

 remaining in his homestead all the same, 

 and wlitn an organized eflfort is made to 

 turn him out he climbs up on to the roof 

 of his domicile and throws hives of bees 

 at the invaders. When an Englishman 

 finds himself in a Bimilar predicament, he 

 breaks the law by stealth — that is to say, 

 he movLis his furniture secretly, by mid- 

 night, to another lodging and leaves no 

 address IjuhiiiU him. And, as all the world 

 knows, shooting the moon" is the tech- 

 nical term for this nefarious performance. 

 If one were asked by a stranger how tlie 

 poor live in outcast London, one would 

 have to .-mswer that it is largely by ''shoot- 

 ing the moon" that a great many of them 

 are enabled to eke out a precarious subsist- 

 ence. — London Graphic. 



