The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-15 00:00:00

nothing less than that the invention of artillery
has been at length superseded exactly
when it ap-
peared to be approaching perfection. The science
of defence will have become superior to the science
of attack, and when that is brought to pass war
will have been shorn, not only of many of its hor-
rors, but of many of the prospects for the sake of
which it is undertaken,—Times.

ANOTHER FATAL DISASTIR IN TILE ALPS.

We regret to have again to record a fatal disaster
which happened in the Tyrol on the morning of the
31st of August last, and by which the Rev. W. G.
Watson, chaplain of Gray's-inn, and grandson of
the celebrated Bishop of Llandaff, met with a simi-
lar fate to that which so recently befell our three
unfortunate countrymen in crossing the Col duGeant.
At 2 o'clock on the morning of the above-men-
tioned day the unfortunate gentleman, with his
friend, Mr. Frederick K. H. Cock, barrister, started
from the chalets of the Mutterberg Alp, at the head
of the Stubbayer Thai, where they had passed the
previous night, for the purpose of crossing the
glacier pass, which leads them to Solden in the
Otzthal. They were accompanied by Jakob Muller,
a
guide from Kressbach, in the Stubbayer Thal,
who
had been highly recommended to them by the
curb of Neustift, the last village in the valley.
They proceeded in perfect safety to the summit of
the pass, having
in their way up encountered no
further difficulty than
wasart
sof h
presentedt
of the snow, which in p
which they ascended was knee de steepeep elopes
Theroute
down from the Col into the Windacher Thal, a
small lateral valley which runs into the Otzthal
within a short distance of Solden, lay over the
steep snow slopes of the WindacherFneratieer
or glacier (in the Tyrol " ferner " is the m
by which glaciers are known), which in parts
were intersected by ridges of rock, alongwhich
it was impossible to pass. Upon reaching the
second of these ridges Mr. Watson, who had com-
plained of the excessive roughness and difficulty of
the first, suggested to the guide to cross over the
snow in preference. The guide yielding a ready
assent, the party proceeded to " glissade" down two
of the snow slopes in succession. Upon reaching the
end of the second a third presented itself, hemmed
in on one side by a wall of rock, and on the other
descending gradually to a lower elevation, where,
as it was afterwards discovered, it terminated in a
glacier stream. Here, as before, the guide, in an-
swer to an inquiry from Mr. Watson, whether they
might cross by the snow, replied, " By ail means."
Accordingly the three proceeded abreast, Mr. Cock
being on the extreme right, Mr. Watson to his left
at a distance of about two feet, and the guide to the
left of Mr. Watson at about the same distance.
They had gone about half way down when Mr.
Cock suddenly felt his left leg sinking under him,
and in an instant it went through the snow up to
the hip. He threw himself forward on to the knee
of his other leg, and drew the left leg after him,
and so upon the firm snow beyond. He was in the
act of rising and of remarking to his friend, " That
was a nasty place," when, on looking towards Mr.
Watson, he heard the poor gentleman exclaim,
" Hallo !" and saw him disappear downwards per-
pendicularly as if through a trap-door. A loud
rumbling noise occasioned by his fall succeeded, at
the end of which there was a momentary silence,
broken by a faint moan, which lasted for a few
seconds, when all was still. It was now 25 minutes
past 6 a.m. Mr. Cock and the guide lay down
upon the snow, and looked down the cavity which
Mr. Watson had made, but they could discern
nothing but an apparently fathomless abyss of ice.
After waiting 10 minutes in vain for a response to
their urgent entreaties to poor Mr. Watson to
speak to them and let them know his position and
the injuries which he had sustained, and after let-
ting down a rope, which the guide then for the
first time in the day produced, Mr. Cock despatched
the guide for assistance, he meanwhile remainieg
by the side of the fatal hole. After an absence of
three hours and a quarter three men arrived from
some chalets in the Wandacher Thal with a rope,
by which they let down one of their number. Mr.
Cock had employed the intervening time in throw-
ing down the small stock of provisions that was
left, and in letting down the guide's rope, length-
ened by Mr. Watson's plaid, which he cut in half
and attached to it, and imploring his friend to
speak to him, and fasten himself ; but all in vain.
The man who descended reported that all was dark
below him and he could see nothing. It was then
reluctantly determined to leave the spot and pro-
ceed with all speed to Solden for a longer rope and
more hands. Mr. Cock and the guide accordingly
descended to Solden, where, with the aid of the"
kindhearted cure, ropes and men were procured,
with whom Mr. Cock returned at once. It was
past two o'clock when they left Solden, and it was
not till about half-past five o'clock in the afternoon
that they reached the scene of the disaster. Here
a young man named Joseph Carlinger, of Kayser,
near Solden, whose heroism we cannot too highly
commend, was lowered into the abyss, and after
he had descended, at the imminent danger of
his life, to a depth of about 90 feet English, he
discovered the body of the unfortunate gentleman
in a recumbent position, so far as he could judge
by touching it with his ands, for the darkness was
so great that he could see nothing. A cord was let
down through the hole made by Mr. Cock's leg in
the morning, and attached to the body. It required
the united strength of the eight persons present to
draw it up to the surface. With the exception of
the head, on which were visible severe wounds and
contusions in rude contrast with the peaceful ex-
pression of the face, it was uninjured, but perfectly
cold, and it was evident that life had long been
extinct. A post mortem examination showed that
most extensive extravasation of blood upon the
brain had taken place in consequence of the violence
of the shock, and there is no doubt that death must
have been instantaneous. Exactly 12 hours elapsed
between the time of the accident and the moment
when the body emerged from the abyss. The unfor-
tunate gentleman was borne down to Solden, where
the circumstance of the disaster underwent the most
searching investigation at the hands of an official
Commission, despatched for the purpose from Silz,
the chief town of the district. It resulted from this
inquiry that the guide was solely and grievously
responsible for the fatal occurrence. In answer to
explicit inquiries made before starting he had re-
peatedly assured both the travellers that there was
not the slightest danger in the pass, but that
oitfwthaes
merely a fatiguing walk owing to the depitrh
snow, which in places would be up to_tlc)e.
He never once produced the rope, Tv% nwhereas
knees.t ap..
peared when too late, he had wthiethcnoti,
nd more
the glaciers on both sides of
especially on the Stubbayer
side,idi these attempting
count be crossed without tying should on no ac-
ohfinatlio,fopdaonngherisatreaany..
the chalets, he alib-
pitatrotgoefththeer cohaetet,lin owuotrnsot
the snow to join Mr. Cock,
men from
spteaairnaendc efr withoni echoes
sing
but remained in safety upon the rocks at some dis-
tance. We learn that he is to be put upon his trial
for his conduct.
A brother of the deceased, who had been sum-
moned by telegraph from England, arrived at Sol-
den on Saturday the Bth, and on the following
morning read the funeral service over the grave.
The body had been interred the previous Tuesday in
the churchyard of Solden by the excellent cure, the
Rev. Bernhard Schopf,
who could not have behaved
with greater
kindness or more affectionate sym-
pathy if the unfortunate gentleman had been at
once of his own faith and his own kin. The whole
population, indeed, vied with each other in render-
ing to Mr. Cock the greatest assistance throughout
the very trying circumstances in which he was
placed. The friends of the deceased have the con-
solation of knowing that, through the devotion and
energy of that gentleman, everything that human
means could effect was tried, though, alas ! in
vain.

It only remains to add that the two gentlemen
were no inexperienced novices in Alpine travelling.
Last year they had together achieved some of the
most difficult heights and passes in Switzerland, of
which it may suffice to mention Monte Rosa, the Col
du (leant, and the Col d'Adler.

LOST LITERATURE.—In these days of cheap
printing and toleration, book-burning is looked upon as a
puerile folly, upon a par with the Irish method of spiteing
a banker by burning his notes. Still literature has suffered
losses. As Vat Tyler's victorious rabble made firebrands
of the ancient records of the City of London, so mad woke
destroyed invaluable treasures when they set fire to korai.
Mansfield's and Dr Priestley's houses. The Vandal p',..1..,.,
sena, in retreating from the lines of Torres Vedras, w.,17v7d,
destroyed the church and convent of Alcobaca, rrlic; have
the national literature of Portugal. Valuabli!.!°nica., Of
fallen victims to ignorance and avarice. The
Peiresc, " the attorney-eeneral of the rep i Iby the most
refused to allow the letters addressed to Ili': because she
eminent scholars of the age to be publishnera earyttnt used
ua.c of letters,"
found them useful for fuel. Mr. Warburgch were unique
up a collection of old plays, many of which
the bottoms of
specimens of Elizabethan dramatist,, fraable purpose the
tarts and lighting the fire, for wire 'applied by its igno-
records of the hospital of St. Cros9,_;,,es wife, disgusted
rant housekeeper; and Bishop ;e". r-
a in a few moments the
with his studious habits, destsrooni
(tirnes authors have been
results of eight years' b. •
Thalia luorrar/ suicide. Collardeau, when
stoics enough
tto the re, and sacrificed his trans-
dying, draggher himselfeinTigh is said to have destroyed the con-
lation of Tasso; 11;aflia o History of the World ;" James
eluding volumes 0i
Moore put B ro '
ed a novel, the composition of which has
Montgomery burna
of his imprisonment;
lightened thefireer s_
p'Orsay did the same office for his own,
3
diary in the have been worth readily,. • and
Col. is own,
which raust Stewart, not only b ,
f pugahi y destroyed his own manu-
son 0 hich he calulated ha
scricost him 13 years of his life,
what was of considerably more co
but . nsequence burned his
father's moomplete " Philosophy of aMa 'Member of
Ilan as a
1 political Association," his Edinburgh lectures on " Politi-
cal Economy," and a continuation of his "Encyclopedia
Britannica Dissertation ;" unmindfulof Milt ) ' a alorisro
"that he who de6trovs tn s
.1-
...
~ ,
good book kills Reason itselt,
1 Chambers' 3 burna/.- a