Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1875-08-06
A Storm OF Sheeted Ice In Switzer-
land.

| "A StOTtH Vi 1HettNu AtG III 5Nit6Ss
land.
A correspondent at Geneva gives al
account of the terrible storm whiel
broke over the city of Geneva at mid
night of Wednesday, the 7th of July
About eight o'clock few heavy drop
of rain began to fall, and at the SAINT
time the whole circum' erence of the no
rizon began to be iitfully Illuminated by
flashes of sheet lightning, But there
was no thunder Once only during the
entire night was there any, one terrific
clap of thunder, and that was when the
storm was just over. The lightning
gradually increased in intensity, and lost
its character of ftfulness. 1t became
indeed actually and without exaggera-
ton, continuous. The entire atmosphere
seemed to be an element of flame, and
all this time there was not the slightest
movement of the air in the streets. AT
about IL o'clock small objects lying on
roofs of houses we're caught up and
whirled around as by cyclone, and still
there was no movement of air in the
streets below. At midnight the tempest
came. 1t came mainly from the Jura
range, and from the southwest, travelling
in that direction toward the basin of
Lake Leman. But as it neared the lake
it seemed to spread out into fan-like
form, with a front sufficiently wide to
embrace the entire city. 1t did not last
much longer than 10 minutes. At the
end of it the city of Geneva was wreck
ed as no army of besigers could have
wrecked it in the same space of time.
The storm came in the shape of an al
most compact mass of sheet of ice,
driven horizontally before the tempest's
blast. In the first instant every gas
lamp in the streets save here and there
one spared by reason Of some protecting
roof, was smashed to atoms and extin-
guished. But the city was not in dark
ness, for masses of coagulated hail re-
Elected the blue light of the lightning
in CHASTITY and ominous manner The
windows of manufactures and residen-
ces were forced from their fastenings,
besides having all the glass shiverd, and
bedrooms, staircases and saloons were
thus thrown open to the storm, and in a
minute or two half filled with masses of
ice, far beyond the immediate power of
the inhabitants to remove, for the storm
was marked by this popularity, that
hail stones, or ice fragments rather, COM
pacted themselves into one solid mass as
soon as they fell. On the slope of the
left bank of the river Arve in the sub
urb Of the city, the tiles of many houses
were absolutely beaten to powder, and
stout partitions of wooden plank were
pierced by holes such as might have
been made by a musket ball. Three
persons were killed by the fall of farm
house in the immediate vicinity of the
city. Vast quantities Of small birds have
been picked up, having been killed by
the storm, and the bodies of several fox
es have been found. Geneva is surround
ed by pleasure gardens and vineyards
and market gardens, and these have
been destroyed as if a charge of cavalry
had passed over them, to the ruin and
despair of the poor and industrious
peasants, who have invested the perserv-
ing labor Of years in the soil, and whose
all is now taken from them as effectually
as if it had been sunk to the bottom of
the sea.