A Week among the Glaciers. 289 



which from the valley appear, as they are displaced, not larger 

 than fifteen or twenty feet square, are, to those who are in their 

 immediate vicinity, from one hundred to two hundred feet. 

 This kind of avalanche differs from the Staub-laminen, (dust av- 

 alanche,) as they are called by the natives of the Alps, which 

 being formed by the loose fresh-fallen snow of winter, before it 

 has been melted and made compact, is piled up by the whirlwinds 

 which are common in the Alps ; such avalanches increase as they 

 descend, till they acquire an enormous size, covering acres, I may 

 say miles, in their descent ; overwhelming and laying prostrate 

 whole forests of pines or villages which lie in their course. An- 

 other kind, the Grund-laminen, fall chiefly during the early 

 months of spring and summer, as in May and June, when the 

 rays of the sun being very powerful, the snow becomes more 

 compact. They are composed of soggy snow and ice, and are 

 also very destructive. 



They were avalanches of this kind, that in 1720, in Ober 

 Gestelen, (Vallais,) and in 1749 in the Tavetsch, produced such 

 devastation. The records of the valleys of the Alps abound with 

 mournful exemplification of the destructive power of these ava- 

 lanches, and of many others of this class. The wind of the 

 avalanche, whose violent effects have been described by writers, 

 probably acts only by its vibratory power, and the concussion 

 consequent upon the movement of the avalanche, thus filling 

 up the momentary vacuum produced by its rapid motion through 

 the air. This idea of the wind of avalanches is common among 

 the inhabitants of the Alps, as is a similar one among many of us, 

 concerning the wind of a cannon ball, killing without touching.* 



In support of their opinions of the wind of avalanches, they 

 cite the fact of large and sturdy pines being cut smoothly off, 

 without the bark or branches being chafed, but I saw nothing of 

 this kind, which could not be accounted for by the rush of wind 

 to fill the vacuum. It was in this way that the village of Ronda 

 in the Visp-Thol, had many of its houses prostrated and scattered 

 in fragments in 1720, and also one of the spires of the convent 

 of Dissentis fell by the vibratory action of the air, produced by 

 an avalanche which fell about one fourth of a mile distant from it. 

 This concussion of the air is familiar to all by the effects produced 



* See however an indubitable instance of this effect in Col. Trumbull's Autobi- 

 ography, p. 21. — Eds. 

 Vol. xlvi, No. 2.— Jan.-March, 1844. 37 



