Weushorn and the Dcsir udion of the Village q/'Randa. S75 
the height of the village, nearly ^50 feet above the river, is 
nearly half a league. 
On the S7th December 1819, at si^ o'clock in the morning, 
towards the eastern and most rugged side of the highest peak of 
the Weisshom, a part of the glacier which covers it having be- 
come loose, precipitated itself with the noise of thunder on the 
mass of ice below, and announced, by the most frightful crash, 
the ravages which threatened the valley. At the instant when 
the snow and ice struck the inferior mass of the glacier, the 
pastor of the village, the sacristan, and some other persons, ob- 
served a light which almost immediately disappeared, and 
left every thing enveloped in the darkest night. A frightful 
hurricane, occasioned by the pressure of the air, immediately 
succeeded, and in an instant produced the most tremendous de- 
vastation. The precipitated masses of ice did not reach the val- 
ley, but the hurricane occasioned by their fall was so violent, 
that it carried substances several toises up the mountains ; tore 
up by the roots the largest larch trees at great distances; pro- 
jected blocks of ice of some cubic feet beyond the village to the 
distance of half a league ; carried away the spire of the steeple ; 
levelled several houses with the ground, and carried the car- 
pentry of several edifices more than a quarter of a league beyond 
the village, into the forest which lies above it. Eight goats, 
which were in a stable, were whirled to the distance of several 
hundred toises, and, what was very singular, one of them was 
found alive. At the distance of more than a quarter of a league 
above the village, the barns opposite the glacier wei*e complete- 
ly unroofed. 
Upon the whole, nine houses in the village were totally 
destroyed, and the other thirteen more or less damaged ; eigh- 
teen granaries, eight small dwelling houses, two mills, and 7^ 
barns, are either destroyed, or so much injured as to be of 
no use. The crops, too, are almost totally lost, both for man 
and beast. Out of twelve persons overwhelmed by this cata- 
* It would be desirable to have a satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon, 
which, in so far as we know, has not been observed in similar cases, and which, 
in the darkness of the night, was too striking to be attributed to any illusion.—* 
Oaro. 
We have no hesitation in considering the light here mentioned as electrical, and 
as analogous to that which is developed by breaking crystallised sugar, &c— Ed<, 
