156 =J. A. Symonds—Avalanches and Avalanche Blasts. 
avalanche blast. Its inhabitants were all killed, except an old man 
above sixty and a child of two years. Again, I may mention that 
the tower of the monastery at Dissentis was on one occasion blown 
down by the same cause. In order to understand the force of the 
‘* Lavinen-Dunst,” as this blast is called here, we must remember 
that hundreds of thousands of tons of snow are suddenly set in 
motion in narrow chasms. The air displaced before them acts upon 
objects in their way like breath blown into a pea-shooter. 
feb. 7.—It is still snowing. We reckon that there is an average 
depth of five feet in the valley. In the woods, and where it has 
drifted, the snow is of course much deeper. Four large avalanches 
fell to-day between Frauenkirch and Schmelzboden. One of them, 
in the Rutsch-tobel, below Monstein, caught some men working on 
the road. The man in advance, Caspar Valir, was blown across the 
stream and buried. The others managed to extricate themselves. 
I have since then seen this avalanche. It covers about five acres 
in the valley, and has a depth in the deepest place of at least sixty 
feet. The trees on a hill above it have been mown down by the 
violence of the wind it carried [sucked after it ? ]. 
Feb. 9.—It is still snowing. The road between Davos and Wiesen 
is said to be impassable. The electric light is extinct in Davos 
Platz to-night, owing to an immense avalanche, which fell in the 
Dischma Thal and choked the water supply, 
I must observe that when there is a considerable frost, the snow 
does not get easily into motion, and so there is less risk of avalanches. 
The greatest danger is when a thaw, with blustering warm wind, 
sets in while the snow is still falling. There are, roughly speaking, 
three sorts of avalanches. One is called “Staub Lavine,” and 
descends when the snow is loose and recently fallen. It is attended 
with a whirlwind, which lifts the snow of a whole mountain side 
into the air and drives it onwards. It advances in a straight line, 
overwhelming every obstacle, and is by far the most formidable of 
the three sorts. The second is called “Grund Lavine.” It falls 
generally in the spring-time, when the firm winter snow has been 
loosened by warm thawing breezes. The snow is not whirled into 
the air, but slips along the ground in enormous masses, gathering 
volume and momentum as it goes, and finding a way forward by its 
own weight. The third is called “Schnee-Rutsch,” or snow-slip. 
It consists of a portion of snow detached upon a mountain slope, 
down which it slides gently, heaping itself gradually higher till it 
comes to rest on a level space. Small as the slip may be, it is very 
dangerous. The snow in motion catches the legs of a man, carries 
him off his feet, creeps up to his chest, and binds his arms to his 
side, being compressed by motion into a firm substance like hardening 
plaster of Paris. I once saw a coal cart with two horses and a man 
swept away by a very trifling slip of this sort. The man and one 
horse managed to keep their heads above it and were rescued. ‘The 
other horse was stifled before he could be dug out. 
Feb. 12.—Drove over the avalanches to Wiesen. At Glarus saw 
fifty-two men digging for the body of Caspar Valir. They have 
