Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-24 00:00:00

ITALY

TURIN, SEPT• 18

There being no subject of greater public interet t
on the tapis at the moment, I went up the
Val d'Aost the other day to examine the scene
of the inundation which I mentioned in my last
letter.

Arnaz, the village that has suffered so terribly, is
about 15 English miles from Ivrea, and one beyond
"the Fort of Bard. The valley there widens into a
triangular-slaaped basin, at the upper angle of which
is the village of Arnaz, with the town§ of B trd, and
Champ de Pie.z at either extremity of the base,
along which runs the Dora Baltea, At the back of
ArnsZ there is a sugar-loaf.shaped hill, the steep
sides of which are scored with waeer-eourses,
making a fan-like figure, converging to a point jest
above the village, where their united contributions
form the torrent that has caused all this present
misery. Heretofore, this torrent has been con-
sidered so insignificant, and S 3 innocuous, that it
has never been th-night worthy of any more spe-
cial designation than the little stream," or the
"little torrent ;" in teed, in ordinary times, it barely
sufficed to• turn the village mill, and supply the
irrigation of the fields below, all of which it has so
utterly destroye 1 in is fury.
According to the accounts of the villagers the
disaster is-attributable ton violent storm with very
heavy-rair, thich some call a waterspout, bursting
on the sugat-loaf hill above mentioned, on the
night of the 10th inst., and it is supposed, from the
I,masses of. rocks brought down from' the sides of
the hill, thatasorne obstruc ion was caused a short
way below the junetion.of the water-Cour, es, and
which must have formed a dr m until such a body of
water was collected behind it as burst th:ough nil
oppositioe and destroyed everything that stood
in its passage. Looking at - the great. fragments
torn from tOe mountain, and now scattered over
what were -clarefully cultivated vineyards and -mea
dews, this surmise appears reasonable enough but
to obtain enythinAilike a clear description of sub.
sreett.ent events until the work of desolation was 'at
an end, was, of course; out of the question, for, in
the first place, it must have been veil dark when
the casualty occurred ;, and, in . the next, the
wretched survivors, whom we met wandering. about
the ruins, looked as if they
.must have been com,
pletely bewildered, beyond all hope of understand-
ing, by such an untoward catastrophe.
As may be supposed, the scene presented to the
eye there is melancholy in the extreme, and is
rendered more disagreeably so by the' numbers of
persons afflicted, more 'or less, with the curse of
goitre's and cretinism. A shipwreck, an earthquake,.
a field cd. battle, might furnish similes for this
sight' of desolation. Mill .Wheels, cart wheel's,
window frames. doerposts, beams, wine barrels, bits
of furniture, &e., lie scattered all about among
rocks fresh from the mountain side and bricks and
stones from the overthrown houses,but the effects of
this inundaiion-more nearly resemble the overfl )-at
of -.a—volcano than anything else, perhaps, for the
whole valley from the village of Arnaz down to the
Dern, for the brea:lth of a couple of htindrod paces.
on an average, has been ovceairl with a coating of
gravel and rook; and of 'course all vegetation de-
stroyed as effectuallyas on the sides of Etnno:Vesu-
vius )vhon a st‘:eann of lava runs dOwn4 theM. The
vineyards and meadows, an I corn fields, which the
poor villagers cule.va'ed with painful labour are
now no more, and the sr.a33 they,occupied resem-
bles merely the bed of a torrent. • It must be some
years before this land can be recovered from the
destructive matter that now overlay's it, for the
people of the district are poor, and haVe beep great
sufferers by the vine disease, and it is `calenlated
that the damage now done is equal to 500,000 f.

The loss of human lives has been 30, as ascer-
tained by the authorities up to this time, but, it is
feared that still more have been sacrificed, of which
there is no proof as yet. One whole family was
swept away. and not a single member left to tell
the tale. One of those rescued alive froth the
ruins died the day before yesterday, and there are
many others in a precarious state from •wounds
and 'exposure. The body of a young woman was
found on the banks of the Dora, near Ivrea, the
other day. The face was so little disfigured that
she was immediately recognised by her brother,
who had been summoned for the purpose by the
Magistrates. .It appears that at the time of the
disaster she was in the house with her father and
mother and an invalid sister. The father and
mother were washed away to a considerable dis
tance, but left ultimately on dry ground without
any very serious injury, but the fate of the other
daughter is still uncertain_.•
The villagers were still digging to clear the cel-
lars of a house, three walls of which alone
remained standing, when I visited 'the place the
other day, in search of the bodies of persons
who it was thought might have rushed there
for security ; and as we passed the church we
saw another party engaged in digging a fosse-
like looking grave. Altogether. a more die-,
spiriting sight than this unfortunate village
offered can hardly be conceived, heightened as it is
by the presence of that most hideous affliction,
cretinism, which is sure to present itself at every
turn. It is gratifying to find that not only the
King and the Government have contributed hand-
somely towards the relief, as far as possible, of, the
sufferers, but that all the neighbouring communes,
as well 119 the municipalities.of Aosta and Ivrea,
have voted liberally for the same object, and private
charity is also adding considerably to the fund.