The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-10-07
4 Fatal LsndSlip.

n the northern part Of Bengal IL cool and
sequestered resort called Mama Tai. Il ID
perched up among the hills and has long been
special refuge during the sitting heats Of tho
Hindostan summer for Englishmen of both
the civil and military service. Many such
residents have been wont to fly with their
families on the approach of the parching
weather OF the extreme season and to find an
asylum in the moist shades of Naina Tai A
considerable mountain stream passes the spot
on it, course toward the plains and beauti.
1ul lake tempers the atmosphere hard by.
At Mama Tai some Of the most romantic epi.
sodes Of Indian life have had their beginning
and their end, and more than ono novelist has
chosen the place Is a scene for picturesque
incident and description. Such are some OF
the associations Of Naina Tails past; but that
Its history will be embellished by similar pas
saSes In the future is scarcely probable. Tho
village, as we just learn by telegraph, has been
absolutely overwhelmed; and it is even likely,
II fears now expressed are confirmed, that
Mama Tai will be obliterated from the face Of
the earth.
The fate that has come upon this remote
Bengal settlement, while rare one, is by no
means without precedent. A memorable ex-
ample has been known in this country, and
the name Of Franconia suggests its sad par
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two cases. But instead of lying at the foot Of
one or two mountains Mama Tai was sur
rounded by them. It might be described as
lying in a cup or basin; and was liable from its
typographical position to sudden inundation.
1t was due, no doubt, to q great rush Of
water that Mama Tai was destroyed. But the
flood was only tho indirect cause Of destruc-
ton. It appears that rain began falling heavi-
ly there, as we read the dispatches, ON last
Friday morning, and that it continued to de.
Scend in prOdigious torrents until Saturday
afternoon. The gauge by that time showed
rainfall of twenty-five inches in forty hours.
The neighboring lake swelled to threatening
height. The river had become a cataract.
Soon after twelve o'clock "there was a sullen
roar and rumbling, followed by vast clouds of
dust, and the whole place shook. The lake
rose in a moment far above its usual height
and swept in a massive wave toward the river,
when an enormous mass of land came down,
burying the hotel and the band of rescuers."
It appears that some of the visitors at the ho-
tel had taken alarm in season and fled. Later
on, when the rest were in imminent danger, q
party was organised to save them; and these
were the "rescuers'' who, with the remaining
guests, were thus smOthered by the ava
lanche. Some thirty natives and an unknown
number of visitors were included among the
victims: and by the last advices the flood had
not subsidized but was devastating the whole
surrounding country.
The most terrible feature about this disaster
has apparently lain in its unexpectedness. In
parts of Italian Switzerland, in the high val
leys of the Rhone, or at spots like the site of
Briel, in Valais, where avalanches of snow
have already occurred, it may be said that a
danger signal is always flying, and people know
what they have to look for. At any point ly-
ing below and near to a possible glacial frac-
ture such chance of catastrophe is ever i'm.
pending, and those who encounter it do SO at
their own choice and peril. Where, however,
no such evil has heretofore been known its
coming is more awful, in the degree that it 10
unlocked for, and that its victims are totally
unprepared either for flight or for any other
means of protection.
In the case of Naina Tai the fatal mischief
has obviously at the first thought been inn
puted to u cataclysm merely; but it may be
suspected that the tremendous rush Of earth
that buried the village was partly of a volcanic
origin like the many minor earthquakes which
during the current year have been experienced
at SO many points of the globe in both its
western and eastern hemispheres.-N. T.
Evening Post.