The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1846-05-02

occasionally inficting hinisefas selfinvited
\ guest at other peoples country-houses. As
! lie lived, so he will die, thoroughly SELFISH
4 lie often talks of the antiquity ofthe Hanson
family, and now and then insinuatcs that
! there is royal blood in their veins. .,..
Thus, while the Younger brother is every
where esteemed, the other is every where a
| laughing stock. Reader! it doesnot answer
4 to he TOO PROUD r1, ..'t bIatst f9rJidor 9d
From DIR. Chcevers Wanderings of Pill
4 grim under the shadow of Mount Blame.
i -ag, A Terrific Alpine Flood. a,ls
4 THE furious torrent Drance thunders down
1 the gorge between ragged and inaccessible
/ mountains, where there IL no vegetation but
.Isuch as has fallen from ITS hold, as it We're in
4 despair, and struggles in confusion. Rocks
g, are piled up as fla whole mountain had fallen
in with its owri.weight; a gallery overwhelming
the torrents passed through, and 10 add some
4 pictnresques in view OF almost unrclenting
desolation, you have n rude little wooden
4 bridge carelessly thrown across the cataract
I for the Inhabitants. \ tfarwas esurely fish
/ iS.g for trout along the cddying borders ofthc
water. t..' '
rThes valley was the scene of that awful
sweep of destruction caused by the gathering
and bursting of a great lake among the gla-
Tiers, where the ORANGE was damned up IN
| the mountains. The chaos ofrGcks ! had BASS
ed through were memorials of it's progress.
! One ofthe boulders rolled down By the cata-
ract is said TO contain 400 square feet This
1 inundation'happened in FSlS. From SINH
lar cause, the falling of greut glCziers fromth
mouptain across the he'd oflbq. ORANGE and
so dammipg il up, there was a. much more
terrible destruction in the year 1895, by which
!. I.... -.
persisted. 1t is thus that the Alpine torrents
prove from time To time the sources of vastly
greater ruin dian tho avalanches, overwhel-
ming whole regions thut the ayalanches can-
hot visit, bursting whole mountain ridges,
and changing The whole face Of nature.
One oftho best descriptions of the catas-
trophG of 1877 is givenh by an artist Of Brock
eudou, from the account of Esther de Linih,
published in the Bibiothcque de Genevo.-
The reader may learn 'front.' something Of
the dangers that ever lie in wait on the Alpine
lie even III the midst off,ncied security. 10 Isl
IN the spring of 1873, the people ofthe val
lev OF la gnes became alarmed on observing
the low state Of The waters of the Drancc, at
n season When the Elelhng of the SHOWS usu-
allv enlarged the torrent; and this alarm was
increased by the records OF SIMILAR appear
ances before the dreadful intimidation ot'l59S,
which was then occasioned by the acculnula-
ton OF the waters behind the debris oia gla-
zierthat formed u dam, which remained until
the pressure ufthc water burst the dixie, aud
it rushed through The valley, leaving desola-
ton in it's course.
ain April, 1918. some persons went up the
valley TO ascclfaintbe cause ofthc efficiency
of water, and they discovered the vast masses
ofthc glaZiers of Getroz, and avalauches of
snow had fallen into narrow part ofthe val !
ley, between Mont Pleureur and Mont Mau- !
yoisin, aud formed a dixie Office and snow 600
feet wide and 400 feet lliclI on n base of3000I
feet, behind which the waters ofthc ORANGE 4
had accumulated, and formed II lake above
1000 feet long, NJ. ycpetz, the engineer of
the Nullais, was consulted and he immedi- !
ately decided upon cutting gallery through !
this barrier Of ice, go feet above the level Of |
the water at the time of commencing, and |
where the dixie was 600 feet thick. He calctl-
lated upon making tunnel through this mass
before this water should have risen 90 feet
HIGHER in the lake. On the 10th of May the !
work was begun by gangs of50 men, who re-
lleved each other, and worked without inter-
mission, day and night, with inconceivnhlc
courage and perseverance, neither deferred
by the daily occurring danger from the falling
of fresh masses ofthe gluziers, nor by the
rapidmcreasc oftlIe waters ofthe lake, which
b
two feet each day; but il once rose five feet in
one day, and threatened each moment TO burst
the dixie by its increasing pressure; or, rising
in greater proportion than the men could pro-
ceed with their work, render their efforts alb
orlive by rising = above them. Sometimes
dreadful noises were heard, as the pressure
of the water detached masses Office from the
bottom, which, floating so much of,
their bulk above the water as led to the be-
lief that some ofthcm were 20 feet thick. The
men persevercd intheir fearful duty without
any serious accident, and though suffering
severely from cold and, wet, and Surrounded
by dangers which cannot be justly described,
by the 4tl Of June they had accomplished an
opening 600 feet long; but having begun their
work on both sides of the dixie at the Same
time, the place where they ought ito have inet
was 20 feet lower on, one side ofthe lake than
on the other it was fortunate that lattcry the
increase of the perpendicular height of the
water was less, owing TO the extension ofits
surface.w They proceeded tolevelthe highest
side ofthe tunnel and complete it Just before
the water reached them. On the. evening OF
the 18th the water began to flow. AT first
thejopeniug was notlarge enoughto curryzotf
the supplies ofwater JYhichtlle lalereceiHedI
and it rose two feet above the tunnel; but this
soon enlarged from the action ofthe water, as
1t melted the floor ofthe gallery, and the tor |
rent rushed through 90 In 80 hohrs the lake |
sank1 o feet and 1dlufingi the following "a \
hours 90 feet more; in a few daisaitwnuld \