146 
AVALANCHES IN THE CAUCASUS. 
the inhabitants of the upland valleys, begin to dread the too 
probable devastation that may ensue. But, as the pending evil 
does not always fall, the fluctuations of hope and fear generally 
prevent them seeking a more secure temporary refuge ; and 
they wait in terrible anxiety, watching the awfully accumulating 
promontory of snow, till it bursts in a moment, and all beneath 
are buried in the ruin. It has been an old observation, that, in 
the course of every seven or nine years, one of these overwhelm¬ 
ing avalanches takes place. And, they are not always confined 
to the winter season, but happen at any time, when either the 
power of the sun, or the weight of the snows, may disengage the 
preponderating load from its hold on the mountain. In June 
1776, the course of the Terek was stopped by one of these ice 
torrents ; when its impeded waters rose to the height of 258 feet, 
and suddenly tearing a passage through the rocky barrier of that 
tremendous defile, with a noise louder than thunder resounded 
by a thousand echoes, rushed onward in a devastating flood. 
Similar was the horrid scene, report brought to us in the 
month of November, 1817. The pale summit of the mountain 
Kasibeck, on the side which shelves down into the dark valley 
between Derial and the village which bears the mountain’s 
name, had been seen abruptly to move. In an instant it was 
launched forward ; and nothing was now beheld for the shaken 
snow, and dreadful over-shadowing of the falling destruction. 
The noise that accompanied it, was the most stunning, bursting, 
and rolling onward, of all that must make death certain. As the 
avalanche rushed on, huge masses of rock, rifted from the 
mountain’s side, were driving before it; and the snows, and 
ice of centuries, pouring down in immense shattered forms, and 
rending heaps, fell, like the fall of an earthquake; covering, 
