6(^2 
AVALANCHES. 
sive iron works in England are established in this dale, which, with 
the bridge of cast iron over the Severn, adds much to the natural 
romantic scenery of the place. The noise of the forges, mills, &c.” 
says Mr. Young, ‘‘with all their vast machinery ; the flames bursting 
from the furnaces, with the burning of coal, and the smoking of the 
lime-kilns, are all together horribly sublime.” The iron bridge was 
erected in 1779; the road over it, made of clay and iron slag a foot 
deep, is twenty-four feet wdde ; the span of the arch is one hundred 
feet six inches ; and the height from the base to the centre forty feet. 
The weight of iron in all is one hundred ana eventy-eight tons 
and a half. 
Avalanches. 
The immense masses of snow which are precipitated from the 
Alps, and often overwhelm whole villages in their destructive course, 
are distinguished by this name. When the snow begins to melt by 
the heat of summer, the water which is produced, in its attempt to 
run oft' below, destroys the adhesion between the snow and the earth ; 
and a new snow, falling upon the old and almost detached mass, 
increases the weight, and determines its fall. — In 1719 an avalanche 
from a neighbouring glacier overspread the greater part of the houses 
and baths at Lenk, and destroyed a considerable number of the inha- 
bitants. In 17G9-70 an avalanche, produced by the immense quantity 
of snow' which had fallen during the winter, rolled down upon the 
pastures on the mountain of Sext in the Alps, when the irnpulse w as 
so great, that it levelled with the ground a forest of beeches and firs 
which covered the declivity of the mountain ; stopped the course of 
the river Gipre, which runs through the subjacent valley; and over- 
threw' a tiumber of trees and barns on the opposite shore of the stream. 
In August, 1820, two gentlemen from Oxford — Mr. Dornford, fellow' 
of Oriel, and Mr. Henderson, fellow of Brazen-nose, college — set out, 
in company with Dr. Hamel and M. Sellique, (who abandoned the 
enterprise at the end of the same day,) attended by twelve guides, to 
ascend Mont Blanc. They encountered the greatest danger (indeed 
with destruction to three of the party) from an avalanche. When 
within four hundred yards of the summit of this interesting mountain, 
the' snow suddenly gave way beneath them, and carried them all 
within a few paces of an immense crevasse. Our readers will like 
to read an account of this moment of danger in Mr. Dornford's ow n 
words. 
“ The difficulty of breathing gradually increasing, and our thirst 
being incessant, I was obliged to stop half a minute to arrange my 
veil: in this interval my companion H. and three of the guides passed 
me, so that I was now the sixth in the line, and of course the centre 
man. He was next before me, and as it was the first time we had 
been so circumstanced during the whole morning, he remarked it, 
and said we ought to have one guide at least between us, in case of 
accident. This I overruled, by referring him to the absence of all 
appearance of danger at that part of our march ; to which he assented. 
1 did not attempt to recover my place in front, though the w'ish more 
