Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-01-13

not June which IS so sunny and SO fnll Of light
aud cheer. 1t is difficult for us Northorners
whose ideas OF Winter are formed upon The
experiences OF snow bound boyhood 20 rec
oncile these weasherish freaks with our pre-
conceptions. Possibly We are as mitch at
fault as the weather itself
We fall in with our old pioneer friend Spur
geon, yesterday, and after the customary
weather-wise sllutatiors, we fell into the in
evitable train of "reminiscences, 1t was as if
two gentlemen Of Herculaneum were to meet
and gossip OF their experiences in the eruptive
remittances from the Vesuvian crater.
The readers OF the APPEAL will call to mind
an avalanche which took place in the winter
OF '65-G6 by whose "icy current and propul
sive course" cabin and two men on the
Bigler Grade were swept down into the depths
below One Of the men, Robinson by nalnsv
survived his partner. Chadwick lies there
under hundred feet Of gravel, granite chips
and loan. Robinson staid all night in his
bare legs in tie snow and was rescued in the
morning by some Canadians, hard by.
In the Spring Of 1852 Mr.. SpUrgeon and a
travelling companion were overtallen by
cloud burst, near Genoa Sturgeon was COM
pleteIy enveloped in dirt and debris, but es-
capped with a stun and some bruises. His
companion has never since been seen Says
the Book: 1.-TWO women shall be standing to-
gether; and one shall be taken and the other
left"
a., L. = ,L,i,,
which lies little west of north, as one stands
in Carson street looking toward Washoe Val
ley, was the scene Of the very evident land
slide or avalanche which is SO much feature
Of that promontory There had fallen, after
a long, dry winter, like the present, very
heavy fall of snow; and it was the sudden
melting of this SNOW that caused the avalanche
which buried Spurgeon and his companion,
and caused that Washoe mountain to break
in two.
The cloud burst of 1874 is so recent an oc-
curence as not to need any special mention.
While upon the subject of avalanches, We
are reminded of Professor Tyndalrs thrilling
account Of and practical conclusions concern
ing, an Alpine avalanche And we quote as
follows: During my residence at the Bel Alp
this year, a catastrophe occurred which rem
ders, for the time being, the description of
the EIargelin See inappropriate. In company
with two young friends | had descended the
glacier and passed through the gorge OF the
Massa. On our return to the Bel Alp we
found the domestics of the hotel leaning out
IL
the glacier From it proceeded sound which
resembled the roar of cataract. The ser
wants remarked that the Margelin See must
have broken loose. This was the case. For
a time however, the water flowed beneath the
glacier; but at point about midway between
the Bel Alp and the Hggischhorn, it broke
forth on the Eggischhorn side, and formed
a torrent between the glacier and the slope of
the mountain. In some places this river was
more than sixty yards wide, at others it was
contracted to less than one-tfth of this width. |
Broken cascades of great height were formed |
here and there by successive lodges of ice, the |
torrent leaping with indescribable fury from
ledge to ledge, and sending smoke of spray |
into the air. At one place the bottom Of the |
torrent was deep soft sand, which, after the
water had passed, could be seen to have been
tortured into huge funnela by the whirling
eddies overhead Soon after we reached the
Bel Alp, On the occasion just referred to, the
front of the torrent appeared at the opposite
side of the valley carrying everything nova
bic before it, and Immediately afterwards
swept through the hollow that we had traver-
sed little earlier in the day. When at the
end of the glacier l was struck by the force
and volume of the Massa, and the grandeur
of its vault, but | could not then account for
the huge blocks of ice which it necessarily
carried down Doubtless the eruption above
had been partial before the grand rush set in.
The Rhone was considerably swollen, crops
we're damaged or ruined, and the driver of
the diligence was sorely perplexed to lind
himself in three feet of water, without any ap-
parent reason, on the public highway Two
or three days subsequently [ learned at the
Eggischhorn that an engineer had been sent
up to report on the possibility of opening
channel, so as to prevent any future accumu-
lation of water in the Margelin See. If this
be done, a useful end will be gained, by the
abolition, however, of one of the most beauti-
fal objects in Switzerland"