The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-09

gay and jecose the day before, determined not
to sleep in the house another night. How
could they get out They were water-bound
| -water-pIisoners. Father Imseng was called
to their council, and assured them the house
would now stand. They entreated him to pro-
vide them with boat or any means of exit.
Bat there was no other open inn-no attain
able house near this inn. The only resource
at the Fathers command was the little relin-
ouished t'Monto Rosa" inn at the rise Of the
hill. How could the French people get out and
enter it One exit only was conceivable and
practicable. An attic window of our hotel, the
Monte Moro, abutted on the said hill. All
who could get up to this attic window, and out
OF it, might easily descend upon the wet grass
Of the hill behind. This resource was hailed
with acclamation-only, how could the window
be reaohedf Presently, there appeared a man
who carried a short ladder. This was applied
so ingeniously that every French man and
woman could mount it, and get upon the
grass outside. To see them successively
mounting and descending was worth all the
terrors and suferings of the day.
Next morning, they re-entered the inn by
the same method, and at night made similar
exit. One gentleman only was bold enough
TO dare the dangers OF the hotel at night, and
he kept me company for two or three evenings.
This Young Frenehman and had the whole
upper rooms to ourselves, and my young
companion endeavoIed TO edify me during the
hours we were together by assuring me that
be did not believe in a God, or a devil, or the
Bible. 1t was quite true, he said, that he
called himself Catholic, because he was not
a Protestant; but as to religion, it was GER
tainly all priestcra(t. Pleasant and profitable
company this in deserted house, surrounded
by the eddying and roaring waters One
evening ventured to remark that If were in
the slightest degree disposed to doubt of
God and Bible, | felt more than ever con-
vinced that there was a devil.
In day or two we got out of the inn door
by means of fr-trees and poles laid in oontnu-
GUS lengths. None but an eyewitness could
credit the havoc and ruin displayed all around.
The village itself was wilder
ness of mud and stones, much
like the bottom of drained lake. The floor
CT the church was covered with the finest silt
and sand, which had been carried in by the
doors. To detail how many wooden bridges
had been broken up, how many trees had
been rooted up, and how many logs and poles
were coniusedly hudiled together, would be
in vain. IL brief all communication was in
terrupted. We were cut off from men, and
could only dream of climbing mountains. Ons
little incident amused us. There lay beneath
our window, before the hood, some large
wooden ninepins and huge wooden bowl. Of
the ninepins none were recovered, but the
great bowl was found amongst blocks and
rocks about twelve miles down the valley,
near Stahlden.
FiDdpgit almost timpracticable to reach Visp,
and that in all probability should have to go
over the mountain from Stahldeu to Tourte-
magne, l resolved to cross the Moro to Macug-
naga. Usually the walk from Saas to the
Mattmarh See inn takes three hours; but now
we had to climb over rocks and pursue tor
tuOus course, SO that four hours were neces-
sary, and on arriving at the so-called See
was surprised to find it quite dry. 1t fact it
had all run down under and by the side of the
Alialein glacier--a phenomenon not before OBJ
served. Doubtless the great flood had forcibly
drained it off.
At the little inn, where l had counted on
laying in provisions for the Moro Pass, there
was no food. Even the bread was eaten up,
and only one bottle of horrible ordinaTe could
be obtained for self and guide. Over the Moro
then, foodless, to Macugnsga-this was the in
evitsble order of the day; and long, famishing
walk found it to be. At Macugnaga heard
of-and witnessed the results of-the fearful
storm. In going to the Belvedere on the
glacier the usual path was quite obliterated,
and | had to mount over boulder5 and
rocks. A deep, dry channel, or rather
ravine, was manifest at the termination of
the glacier, and told unmstaka5ly of a
sweeping water-how. But the most re-
malkable sight l saw was that of q num-
Der of pine-logs, and apparently plauks,
| lying lengthways in amongst the stones,
! 80 sipgularly jammed ia that they
appeared TO be almost interstratded with the
loosely agglomeTated boulders and suggested
fore bly, the idea of future geoiOgica al stra-
tum containing layers OF fossil wood. Alto
gether, the denuding and relaying power OF
the water in all these desOlated valleys was
geologically suggestive, and instructive in a
high degree.
In walking down the beautiful Val
Anzssea to POnte Grande, beheld the most
melancholy proofs of the ravages of the
late foods and in some places | had
to make deviations by no means easy or
pleasant. But it was at the gold mining works
OF Pesterana that l witnessed the most costly
damage. The washing floors of the mining
works were thoroughly desolated and an old
Cornish captain, there resident, pointed ou
to me with deep sorrow the course of the
waters and the ruin OF the works.
l should not like to state from mere
recollection the monetary amount of thu
damage done in this deep valley by tn
inundation but, from my own observa
tiOn, ] am sure it must have been yer,
great. No one reoolieoted such terrific down
rush in any former storm. The Cornish cap
tain described the noise of the resistles
waters as equal to that of Ga thousan
thunders.'
When, on completing my tour round Monte
Rosa, | crossed the Theodule glacier ant
looked up at the Matterhorn in its unclOude
glory, it might almost have been doubted
that unequalled obelisk could have felt tn
effect OF the late tempest. Soaring high u
into the sky, it seemed as calm as might
natural sphinx. Only its riddle has now beel
solved, and climbers have found the safe wa
mn to its head and down its shoulders. At tha