The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-09-17

days in the spring of 1886 furrowed ana
desolated thousand acres OF tho
country above Nicolosi.
The ascent Of Mount Etna, though
one of the most tedious and arduous, Is
one of the most remunerative, for the
view from its summit Is one of unpar-
relleled beauty. A recent writer says
of the sunrise as seen from the noun
tain: 81 keep my eyes anxiously strained
on the most luminous spot, whence OF
a sudden dart of light crosses space,
fieeting over the sea. That dart in
creases into golden streak, clearly
cut, for perceptible moment, on the
purplish water. 1t changes to Hood
of light while the disk OF the sun
energies slowly from under the horizon.
The shadows palpitate, dissolve about
the crests of Etna, TRANSPORTING her
into an island of gold ard rose. Pas
sionately now the day advances, fling
ing wide her magic skirts. The lower
valleys awake, the colors of their vege-
tation glow and dance. The trees lift
up their heads; 1t seems as If in that
profound stiffness one could hear the
murmur of the termination of things.
The sun touches every corner of his
vast kingdom day-full day is with
us.
Beautiful with the beauty of
dreams is the spectacle.
''To the north the archipelago of the
Lipari islands, with their smoky light
house of Stromboli, floats on the irid-
escent sea. To the south, on the bor-
der of the vast horizon, hover two
ghosts, Malta and Pantelleria, while
the purple shadows of the Callabrian
mountains on the mainland bridge the
Straits of Messina, hiding Charybdis
and Scylla. Cameo-cut against the sea
Sicily lies at our feet, displaying her
fifty towns, her countless villages, the
silver ribbons of her rivers, the thous-
and varied details of her uneven soil,
and across her whole length, las tangi-
BILE sign of his dominion, Lord Etna
stretches his enormous triangular
shadow"
The catastrophe at St. Gervais-les-
Bains was of a far more unusual char
acter; indeed it is doubtful whether
there is another instance on record in
which glacier has been the cause of
such disaster. Conflicting theories
have prevailed as to its origin. The
first was that the glacier had, so to
speak, slipped its mornings and crashed
down the mountain side. Again twas
reported that landslip had occurred in
connection with the shifting Of the gla-
cier, and had buried the villages and
hamlets in it's path. Later theories were
that owing to the warm weather a
lake of melted ice had formed in the
interior of the glacier and that this had
burst, throwing large quantities of ice
and rock into mountain torrent of
Bon Nant, which flows through the viii
lage of st. Gervais. A dam was thus
formed, behind which the stream rap
idly rose, and finally carried the bar
rier away from the mountain side.
This torrent, rolling huge masses of
rock and ice, destroyed the hamlets of
Bionnassay and La Fayet, the village
of st. Gervais and the hotel and bath
houses, which lay about six hundred
feet further down the mountain.
st. Gervais is a watering place with
sulphurous springs and is favorite
summer resort. 1t lies in the wooded
ravine of Montjoie, half mile from
the Chamonix road on the Bon Nant.
The baths of st. Gervais were in five
separate buildings, Joined by stone
wall, erected in a narrow gorge. They
were situated about 2,O66 feet above the
sea, on the road from Geneva to Cha
monk. Nearly one hundred deaths
must have resulted from the disaster