Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-04
TIE LANDs11p IN SWITZERLAND.

The Geneva correspondent of the London
Times sends the following account of the
catastrophe at Elm by which between one
hundred and fifty and two hundred lives
were lost, and concerning which accounts
have appeared in the RECORD UNION:
"Next to the rain the chief cause of the
terrible catastrophe which has overwhelmed
Elm is said to be injudicious quarrying for
slate, whereby the mountain was in part
undermined, and SO rendered unsafe.
Some three years ago ominous signs of
danger were observed, and the cantonal
forest master, Herr Sell, warned the pro.
prietors of the quarries that they were
carrying on their excavations beyond the
bounds of safety. The work went on with
out interruption until last Thursday, when
the premonitions of disaster became so
alarming that all the men were withdrawn
from the quarries yet no one seems to
have thought the village was in danger
until Sunday afternoon, when, as the peo-
pie were coming from church, quantity
of stones rolling from the Ischingel crushed
several houses in Untertbal nearest the
foot of the Alp. Ten minutes later came
the great catastrophe; thunderous noise
rent the air, black dust cloud overspread
the valley, and all was still. In those
two or three seconds Underthal had
disappeared, and with it were buried
nearly every one of the unfortunates
who few minutes previously were wor.
Shipping in the village church. Scarcely
any, IN fact, who on the first alarm crossed
the Sernft, either out of curiosity or fear
to lend helping hand to those whose
houses had been struck, escaped, and they
include nearly all the manhood of the vii
lage. The proprietor of the Elm Hotel
was thrown by the conclusion of air from
the iron bridge over the Sernft into the
stream and drowned. His brother, who
had reached the Unterthal side, was
crushed beneath fragment of rock. In
one house there was christening party of
fifteen persons, mostly kinsfolk, all of
whom, save the child's father, were killed |;
at one stroke be was bereft of family, rela.
tives and estate. His house is gone, and
his fields are buried under the wreck of the
mountain. From the first, rescue, though
theoretically attempted, was seen to be
hopeless rocks and earth are piled over
| Unterthal to hight of fifty feet, and the
area covered by the debris is computed at
from six to eight square miles. The state.
ment that two or three of the victims had
been taken from the ruins alive has not
been confirmed, and the dead are mutilated
beyond the possibility of recognition. It
adds another pang to the grief of the be.
reaved to know that even if their dead
should be found they will be unable to
claim them.
ga correspondent of the Neue Zuricher
Zeitung, who visited Elm, describes he
scene as weird, wild and melancholy be-
yond the power of words to express.
Above the rolling clouds which hung about
the skirts of the mountains rose the white
summit of the Plattenberg. Every few
minutes great fragment of rock thunder.
ed down the side of the Tschingler Alp.
Where Unterthal had been was mass of
stones and earth ss high as the church.
steeple. A great part of the village on the
other side of the stream was under water,
and the Sernft, forced from its bed, was
valnly dashing itself against the obstruc.
tions that barred its way. Through a
driving rain men were carrying shapeless
bodies and laying them in the church, one
of the few buildings that have escaped de-
struction A weeping woman was search
| ing among the ruins for some vestige of her
| lost little ones, and an old man, whose
! Wllc, CuAOiCA aho II ahucHiiulcu uao GIL
persisted together, was wandering about
needless of everything, praying that the
rocks might crush him also. But except
these two the villagers, fearing another
arthipels, had fed"
It 10 said that if You have presence of
mind enough to face raging bull and look
straight into his eyes he is powerless to do
you harm. We tried this experiment once
and found it work admirably. The fierce
animal tore the ground with his feet and
beloved with all his might; but some
thing seemed to hold him back like magic
and he did us no injury. Perhaps we
ought to add, in order to be correct his.
torically, that the bull was on the other
side Of the fence. We never try an expert
ment of that kind without taking the
proper precautions beforehand New
York Herald.