The Owosso times., 1881-11-04
The Mountains Falling.

For years past the inhabitants of the
Sernf Valley have found in the extern
sive slate quarries of the Tschingelap
or Plattenburg one of their chief sour
ces of revenue. The berg or mountain
in question rises to height of several
thousand feet just behind what was the
village of Elm. 1t is composed, as the
event has proved, of loose, scaly ma
terial, exceedingly liable to crack and
give way. Into the base of this crum-
bling and treacherous mountain the
quarrymen of Elm dug in former years
without any regard to the laws of sci
ence or the simplest principles Of en-
gineering. Recently they have been
more cautious, but their caution came
too late. In word, they cut away
the foundations of the mountain, and
at last, as a natural consequence, it
has fallen upon them. That there was
some danger of landslide from the
Plattenburg has long been known in
Elm. Within the past three or four
months slight falls of stone and mud
have been of frequent occurrence after
heavy rains, yet the people never for
moment thought of leaving the beauti-
full home to which they were so much
| attached, and even experts who exam
ined the mountain seem to have had no
idea of the full extent of the danger
to which they were exposed. So in
fancied security and entire ignorance
of the awful fate which was in store
for them they lived on.
Meanwhile, the almost unparalleled
rains of Summer were slowly but sure
ly completing the work which had been
begun by the thoughtless or ignorant
quarrymen scores of years ago. The
end came ON the evening of Sunday,
the 18th inst.-in the saints Calen-
dar," current in some parts of Switzer-
land, marked 1.-THE day of Felix, saint
of luck and happiness" During the
early part Of that day the people of Elm
went about their usual vocatiOns in the
usual way and without any anticipa-
ton of the terrible calamity which was
so near at hand. The little church was
well attended, hearty dinners were eat
en-, and afterward, as was the custom,
most of the people, old and young,
walked through the meadows or upon
the mountain side. At 5 o'clock in
the evening, while many of them were
still out in the fields, some one was
heard crying, "Look at the Plattenberg
the Plattenbergp' Those who fol-
lowed the direction and who are still
alive say that for moment it seemed
to them as if every peak above the
slate quarry was in motion; then there
came a rumbling noise, like far-off
thunder, and in a moment they were
blinded by clouds of dust. When they
could see again they found that great
slice of earth and stone had slipped
down from the Tschingelalp, burying
fine houses and covering acres of good
land. Men and women were at the
same time seen struggling among the
ruins, and from all sides friends, neigh
bors, and relatives hurried to their aid.
Unhappily, they hurried also to terri
BILE death. Even while they were en-
gagged i'm their work of love the noun
tain above them moved again. This
time the sound of thunder was not far
distant, but only too near at hand. The
pine Trees OH IDe grassy siopco WcIo
seen to sink. A great cloud of dust
and steam covered the whole valley,
thousands of tons of stone were hurled
through the air. An all-overpowering
wind-pressure carried everything be-
fore it, there was a horrible crash, a
sound of madly rushing torrents, and
all was still. Then the dust aud smoke
cleared away, the sun shone in a cloud
less sky, and it was seen that far as
the eve could reach the once blooming
Sernf Valley was covered with from 40
to 160 feet of black stone, moraine,dir
and slime. Forty dwelling-houses, the
best in the village, together withIdozens
of stables and outbuildings, were buried
ar out of sight, torn to pieces by the
ir-pressure, strewn broadcast over the
moraine. One hundred and eleven of
the people of Elm were swallowed up
| in the general ruin. AT least IL strang-
ers-Italian quarrymen-shared their
fate.
IL was useless TO think of rescuing
any who fell i'm that awful death