THE EARTH. 1 13 



These accidents, and majiy more that might be enumerated of 

 the same kind, have been jjioduced by various causes : by earth- 

 quakes, as in the mountain at Cajeta ; or being decayed at the 

 bottom, as at Diableret. But the most general way is, by the 

 foiHidation of one part of the mountain being hollowed by 

 waters, and thus wanting a support, breaking from the other 

 Thus it generally has been found in the great chasms in the 

 Alps ; and thus it almost always is known in those disruptions 

 of bills, which are knowTi by the name of land-slips. These are 

 nothing more than the slidings down of a his/her piece of ground, 

 disrooted from its situation by subterraneous inundations, and 

 settling itself upon the plain below. 



that of lava, and its effects as impsistible and terrible. The mountain, in its 

 tremendoas descent carried trees, rocks, houses, and every thing- before it. 

 The mass spread in every direction, so as to bury, completely, a space of 

 charming' country, more than three miles square. The force of the earth 

 was so g-reat, that it not only overspread the hollow of the valley, but even 

 ascended to a considerable height on the side of the opposite mountain. A 

 portion of tlie falling mass rolled into the lake of Loxvertz, and it has be«n 

 calculated that a fifth part of it is filled up. 



This event was nut caused by the fall of the summit of the mountain, but 

 by an entire body pf layers, which, from the base, up to the summit of Kusfi- 

 berg (being one hundred feet thick, one thousand feet wide, and nearly three 

 miles in length), was separated from the lower layers, and slid parallel to their 

 planes into the valley. Though this calamity was sudden, it had been pre- 

 ceded several hours by certain indications which are of importance to re- 

 cord, as they may at a future t;me induce people to escape from danger, 

 and because they are the consequences of causes that determined the rapid 

 ity with which the fallen part slid from its base. 



An inhabitant of Spitzbuhl, residing about two thirds up the mountain, 

 heard amidst the rocks, about two o'clock, a kind of cracking, which he at- 

 tributed to suptrnatural causes, and immediately ran down to Arth, to pro- 

 cure a clergyman to come and quiet it. Almost at the same time, a man at 

 the foot, of the mountai ., while striking his spade into the ground to dig up 

 tome roots, saw the earth spirt up with a gentle explosion, and a kind of 

 whizzing against his head. He left his work, and related this to his neigh- 

 bours, for which phenomenon they could not account. The shepherds who 

 still live in places intermediate to these two stations, assert that, from the 

 morning and throughout the day, the mountain emitted a noise, accompanied 

 with such agitation, that at the villages of St Anne and Arth, tituated 

 .vithin twenty minutes' walk of the places laid waste, all the moveable goods 

 in the houses staggered as if in a state of animation. 



The following is a summary of the li'Ss sustained : 434 individuals, IIH 

 cows and horses, 103 goats and slieep dead ; eighty-seven meadows destroyed 

 sixty meadows damaged, ninety-three houses entirely destroyed, eight 

 houses damaged and uninhabitable, 16<i cow-houses, barns, &c. destroyed, 

 p.nd nineteen daraased. The total damage is estimated at £liO,000. 



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