Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-03-13
UNDER THE SNOW.
Living Five Weeks on Goats Milk Under
an Avalanche In the Alps.

Living Five Weeks on Goats Milk Under
Avalanche in the Alps.
A remarkable instance OF three persons
surviving an imprisonment of five weeks un-
der an avalanche is recorded in Narratives
of Peril and Suffering" In the valley Of the
Upper Stura, at the foot of the Alps, Is the
little hamlet of Bergoletto. In the winter OF
1850 the falls OF snow were uncommonly
heavy. On the 10th of March the parish
priest, who was on his way to the church,
heard a noise from the mountains and, cast
ing up his eyes, he saw two avalanches de-
scending towards the village He gave the
alarm to some Villagers and then retreated
into his own house
The avalanches came aud buried over thirty
houses, and twenty two persons we're found
TO be missing, among them the parish priest
who had given the alarm. The amount of
snow which lay over the ruined dwellings
was about AZ feet deep, 270 feet long and 6O
feet wide
When the surviving peasants had shaken
Off the terror and depression which such an
event must necessarily cause, they set about
trying to save any life or property possible
More than 800 peasants from neighboring vii
lagos came to their assistance But they
could do little; the thickness of the snow
mass was 80 great, and the snow continued to
fall from the clouds in such amount that they
were obliged to discontinue their fruitless ex-
ertions, and wait till the setting in of the
warm April winds which would partly melt
the gigantic snow piles
On the 18th of April the villagers returned
to their melancholy task. 1t was with no
hope of finding any human being alive One
Of them named Rocca, whose whole family
was beneath the avalanche WAS most active
in tile search. BY the oath of April he had
advanced SO far, that after breaking through
six feet of ice he could touch the ground with
long pole. Three friends worked with him
The four worked vigorously, and made
their way, at length, into Roccia's house, but
no one, dead or living, was there As it was
probable that, at the fatal moment, the vic
tins had sought shelter in the stable, which
was about a hundred feet from the house,
Roccia and his companions directed their
efforts in TINT quarter.
After they had burrowed for some time,
one of them thrust a pole through an aper-
ttlre, and on withdrawing it heard u hoarse,
faint voice say;
Help, oh dear husband! Help, dear
brother We are alive"
| They now worked with redoubled activity,
and soon made a considerable opening. And
| there, under tho snow, Roccia. to his joy,
found his wife, daughter and a sister-in-law.
The three sufferers were incapable of NOV
| ing, and were shrunken almost to skeletons
| They were carefully removed from their
place of Imprisonment and conveyed to the
| house of a friend, and proper measures
| adopted for their restoration In q few days
| they were fairly recovered.
Their lives were preserved during these
| long five weeks in the following manner
They had taken refuge in the rack and man
ger, which, being strong, had withstood the
strain, though the roof fell Fortunately
two goats were near them, which supplied
them with goats milk III quantity sufficient &c
| sustain life
| To feed the goats was OF prime importance
Immediately over the manger was hole into
the hay loft; through this hole one of the
women was able 10 pull down fodder into the
rack, and when she could no hnger reach it
the sagacious animals climbed upon her shoul
doris and helped themselves.
Through the whole of their Imprisonment
they were in total darkness. After the first
| five or six days they suffered little from
| hunger, though quart Of goats milk had tC
| suffice for three. They suffered far more
| from the excessive coldness of the snow water
that trickled over them and from the con
strained posture into which they were forced
Youth . Companion