30 NATURAL HISTORY of N RWAT. 



long on the ground, deftroys thoufands of young trees : like- 

 wife when it falls late in the fpring, and after the trees begin to 

 put out their leaves, which, however, happens very rarely, fome 

 trees, and efpecially the alders, wither and die ; a prognoftic of 

 which is the leaves turning to a brownifli hue. It has been known, 

 and particularly in the year 1 742, many people were eye-witneffes 

 of it, that a fpecies of black maggots fell along with the fnow, 

 whereby extreme damage was done to the grain and pafture. But 

 among the mifchiefs occafioned by fnow, the greateil are the 

 Snow-falls. Snee-fkreed, or Snee-fond, that is, when a mafs of fnow, falling 

 fronts precipice, overwhelms both men and cattle, overfets boats 

 in the lakes % and, which is but too often the cafe, demolimes 

 cottages and houfes, infomuch that even whole villages are born 

 down, crufhed, and totally deftroyed ; but this laft calamity is 

 rather an effect of the incredible violence of the wind, dri- 

 ving on the maffes of fnow, when they begin to give way, than 

 of thofe maffes themfelves, houfes having been feen to fall fome 

 feconds before the fnow had reached them. Thefe fnow-falls are 

 of two kinds ; the frrft, when in frofly weather the light fnow is 

 fuddenly let in motion, and in its progrefs fcatteied over all the 

 country, which the peafants call Meel-fond, and is not attended 

 with fuch damages as the other, which is known by the name of 

 Kremfond ; thefe happen, when by the mifta and rains in fpring, 

 the fnow, which by moifture is eonfolidated, falls in a mafs, 

 which, tho' flower in its defcent, leaves ftronger imprefllons on 

 the fides of the mountains, bearing down every thing in its way, 

 even the ftrongeft. new buildings. 

 a whole P a- By a fnow-fall of the flrft kind, a whole parifh, fituate between 

 inow° l e Quindherret and Hardanger, a century or two ago (for the pre- 

 cife time is not certainly known) was wholly covered, and fo re- 



* Thefe accidents it feems are not unknown in Switzerland : " Souvent il tombe 

 du haut des montagnes des maffes de neige prodigieufes, que les allemans appellent 

 Lawinen et les Romains Avelanches, qui tombant avec impetuofite,. font un bruit 

 auffi grand que celui du tonnere. Non feulement elles enveloppent gens et betes, 

 mais elles entrainent et emportent des arbres et des maifons entieres. Le poete Clau- 

 dien qui vivoit au iv fiecle, nous apprend qu'on connoiiToit deja ces chofes de fon 

 terns : 



■ ' ' ' multos haufere profunda 



Valla mole nives, cumque ipfis fepe juvencis 

 Naufraga candenti merguntur plauftra Barathro ; 

 Interdum fubitam glacie labente rwinam 

 Mons dedit, &c. Delices de la Suiffe, Tom. i- p. 27. 



manis 



