58 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



of night. When, added to this uncertainty, one 

 is benumbed with cold and fatigued with exer- 

 tion, the sensation becomes one of almost utter 

 hopelessness and despondency, and it requires 

 all the energy and courage we can command, 

 not to give way to the stupor which steals over 

 us like the power of some potent drug. 



A painful occurrence took place several 

 years ago in the Green Mountains of Ver- 

 mont, where a man, his wife and a young babe 

 perished in the snow, by bewilderment and fa- 

 tigue. 



A wonderful story is also told of one Eliza- 

 beth Woodcock, who was buried in the snow, 

 near Cambridge, England, on the 2d of Feb- 

 ruary, 1799, where she remained eight days 

 and nights! She was taken out alive, but 

 somewhat frozen, and lived until the 13th of 

 the following July. 



In mountainous regions in Europe, among 

 the Alps, for instance, and it is quite probable 

 among the Rocky Mountains of our o^vn coun- 

 try, snow slides occur, which sometimes cover 

 large tracts, overwhelming everything in their 

 course, as did the land-slide in the White 

 Mountains. 



On the 19th of March, 1755, a small cluster 

 of houses at a place called Bergemotetto, in 

 the upper valley of Stura, was entirely over- 

 whelmed by two vast bodies of snow that tum- 

 bled down from a neighboring mountain. 

 Several houses were engulphed. In which were 

 twenty-two persons in all, covered with a high 

 mountain of snow. Great efforts were made 

 to rescue them, but without success, until on 

 the 25th day of April, thirty-seven days after 

 they were buried ! the astonished laborers 

 heard a feeble cry of "help, my brother!" A 

 large opening was then made, when Joseph 

 Rochia went down and found his wife, alive, 

 whose age was about forty-five, a sister thirty- 

 five, and a daughter thirteen years old. These 

 were raised on their shoulders to men above, 

 who pulled them up as if from the grave, and 

 so wasted that they appeared like skeletons. 

 A boy six years old had died. 



All these persons happened to be in a stable 

 where there were six goats, an ass, and some 

 fowls. On looking out, the wife perceived an 

 avalanche breaking down, ran back into the 

 stable, and all got Into the rack and manger. 

 In three minutes the mass descended and the 

 roof broke over their heads, but the manger 

 was under the main prop of the stable and re- 



sisted the weight of the snow above. The sister 

 had fifteen chestnuts in her pocket ; two of the 

 goats gave milk, and by great efforts they got 

 hay from over their heads for them, and thus 

 sustained their lives. During the whole thirty- 

 seven days they saw not one ray of light ; yet 

 for about twenty days they had some notice of 

 night and day from the crowing of the fowls, 

 until the latter died. 



All these facts were related and attested on 

 the 16th of May, 1755, the next month afler 

 the persons were exhumed. 



Hapi^Ily for us in our beloved New England, 

 in our delightfid climate, marked by no great 

 extreme of heat or cold of long continuance, 

 nature has greatly exempted us from the terri- 

 ble revulsions which agitate and terrify the 

 mind in less favored regions of the world. In 

 those countries where earthquakes occur, the 

 people must live in a constant state of fear and 

 apprehension, as though the sword of Damocles 

 were hung over them ; or in China, where al- 

 most every movable thing is instantly swept 

 from the earth, or navies engulphed In the 

 boiling ocean by the terrible 'I yphoon ; or in 

 Arabia, where the air becomes red, and the 

 day is darkened by the clouds of sand which 

 fill the air, sent up by the stifling and pestifer- 

 ous Simoom; or, nearer home, where hurri- 

 canes and tornados give little warning of the 

 terrible destruction they are about to make ! 



Let us be grateful, then, that our "lot is 

 cast in pleasant places ;" that we lie down and 

 sleep without fear that the solid earth may be 

 shaken and rent under us, or that the mountain 

 will fall on us, or that the mighty atmosphere 

 will sweep ourselves and our goods away ! 



Febkuary affords opportunity for such 

 trains of thought, and they will enrich us as 

 much as abundant products of the soil or in- 

 come from notes or bonds. We want a con- 

 tented mind, because that is a continual feast. 

 Nothino- so much tends to this as the study of 

 Nature about us, the 5tudy of ourselves, and a 

 cheerful, loving heart, ever overflowing with 

 grateful emotions. 



FARMING IN FEBRUABY, 

 There Is an old story about St. Anihony, the 

 Patriarch of Monks, who lived in Egypt a great 

 many years ago, who was particularly solicitous 

 about animals. It was probably from his 

 practices that the custom arose of blessings 

 passed on animals, as is still practiced at 



