1807. ] 
from this ee by a general inspection 
et the countr Vhese “plocks.are always 
detached. Bede presence being solely 
limited to the lower parts ot the moun- 
tain, their green or white colour, and 
their large size indicate that they never 
enter, aud never have entered into the 
composition of the mixt layers. 
The separation and falling of “Ruttiberg 
took place at five o’clock in the evening. 
it was the conss equence of the rain which 
fell abundantly in this country through- 
un the summer, and particularly during 
the four and twenty hours preceding the 
2d of September. It had however ceased 
before twelve at noon; and at the moment 
of the catastrophe, it was quite clear. 
This event was nip caused by the fall 
of the summit of the mountain on the 
inferior parts, but by an entire bed of 
layers, which, from the base, up to the 
suramit of Rufibere, (bene one hundred 
feet thick, ene thousand feet wide, and 
nearly a leavue in length) was separ ated 
from the lower layers, and slid “parallel 
to their planes, into the bottom of the 
valley, with a rapidi ty ieonceivable for 
such trifling inclination. 
The peasant who conducted M. Saus-, 
sure in his excursion on this mountain 
had been an eye-witness to the spectacle. 
He resided in the direction of the drifted 
section at Gber-Rothen, a hamlet situated 
on the deciivity of Rufiberg ; was en- 
gayed in cutting some wood near his 
house, and within six orseven paces from’ 
the place where the drited section 
passed. Tle heard on a sudden a noise 
like a hia -storm, and at the same 
time felt under his fee takind of trem- 
bling. He mstantly quitted 
but had scarce proceeded four or five 
paces, before he was thrown down bya 
current of He got up immedi ately. 
The devastation was Peete the tree 
which he had cut down, ye yuse he had 
pei d, every thing a ppeared, and 
e saw, according ¢ 9 bis own expr session; 
a new creation. An immense cloud we 
dust that immediately succeeded, threw 
a veil over the whole. country. 
Some accounts relate, that this catas- 
trophe had Leen attended with fame and. 
a sulphureous smell. But the most cre- 
dible witnesses perceived nothing of the 
kind. Some colliers were burning char- 
coal on the road which the sliding sec- 
tion took; and it is possibie that the 
sudden dis spersion of their ignited heaps 
aught have produced an appearance of 
faine. 
‘The g 
alr. 
e 
enerality of the inhabitants of 
‘of the mountain, 
striking his spade into the ground, 
the place, . 
Account of the Fall of Ruffiberg in Swrizertand, — 345 
the country affirm, that the falling did 
not continue three minutes, and that ® 
was felt at the same time both at the top 
and foot of the mountain. Though this 
calamity was sudden and unexpected, it 
had been preceded several hours by 
certain indications, which it is of impor- 
tance to record, as they may at a 
future time induce people to escape from 
danger; and because they are the con- 
sequences of causes that determined the 
rapidity with which the fallen part slid 
from its base. 
An inhabitant of Spitzbubl, a farmer 
residing about two thirds of the way-up 
the mountain, heard amidst the rocks 
about two Gcloee a kind of cracking 
which he attributed to superpatura at 
causes, and immediately ran down to 
Arth to procurea alergyman to come and 
quiet it. Almost at the same jnstant, at 
Under Rothen, a tittle village at the foot 
Martin Weber, while 
to dig 
up some roots, saw the earth spirt up 
with a gentle Hea and a kind of 
whizzing avainst his head. He left his 
work directly, and went to relate to his 
neighbours the phenomenon, for: which 
they he net account. 
The 5 pepe: s, who still live in places 
intermediate to these two stations, assert 
that, from morning and throughout the 
day, the mountain cennisred a noise even 
to the moment when the separation Bae 
pened. This they affirm was accompamed 
with such an agitation, that ¢ it the villages 
of St. Anne and, Ath, situated waitinn 
twenty minutes’ k of the slaces laid 
waste, all the movea se goods m the houses 
staggered as if 1 2 state of animation. 
Nothing, however, was either felt or 
heard at Schwitz, which is only a league 
and a half from the scene. The noise 
heard previously to the catastrophe, pro- 
ceeded from the breaking of the layer 
which had been unde: “mined ; it did not 
begin to sink aid slide t until all its parts 
had been disunited 
M. Saussure ascended the summit of 
Rufliberg by its eastern side, passing 
through the village of St. Anne. Theslope 
is Ae ays easy, and may be ascended on 
horseback. The ground on this part a5 
covered with orchards, meadows, and 
fir-trees, thinly scattered; the rock which 
serves as a base to the “vecetable earth 
is not percepuble, we only see here and 
there large blocks of mixt stone, but 
these blocks have been a long time de- 
tached. hey are found in a kind of 
little vallies,. with which the jeuntain 1s 
ie Ue furrowed 
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