The St. Johns herald., 1892-06-23
DEATH IN THE ALPS.
Tourists Killed While Climbing
 the Mountains.
Fourteen Lives Lost Among the Rugged Heights During the Year 1890 Some Miraculous
 EscaDes.

lar amusement there have never been so many fatal accidents in any one year as have marked the season of 1890.
 The last number of the British AL pine Journal says that fourteen per sons, travellers and guides, have per ished in accidents above the snow line during tho last summer. This does not include some very serious accidents oc- curing, not to pleasure tourists, but to people whose line of duty requires them to travel in the high Alps. For instance, about fifteen Italian soldiers, required to march from fort to fort in the Alps during the last summer, have been overtaken by storms or avalanches which have cost them their lives. One party of six men, swept from their feet, were precipitatcd more than one thou sand six hundred feet to the bottom of a valley, and four of them were killed, but two miraculously escaped. The most astonishing escape of the season is that of few Italian soldiers who were ovcrtaken by an enormous ava lanche and rolled down the mountain with the speed of an express train, yet, strange to say, they were suddenly stopped on a level space after fall of six hundred and fifty feet, and were un- hurt beyond Q few scratches. The ava lanche swept on past them, leaving the young soldiers staring at one another, astonished to find that they were still alive.
 The accidents, however, which are l,ov. i1aI lot fo fc- and their guides. June q German, MT. Poppe, was killed in the Oetathal. He fell from ledge and dragged with him his guide, who also perished. July 3l Dr. Mayer, of Vienna, and his young son attempted to ascend a mountain in the Kapruner Thal, under the guidance of the experienced mountaineer, Schern- thaler. The usual search party was or ganized after the tourists had been sev- eral days missing, and the bodies of the entire party were found at the foot of a dangerous cliff. It was evident from the appearance of the guide that he had made remarkable efforts to save the lives of his comrades. On the same day guide named Untersteiner, after having conducted a tourist in an ex- cursion on the Venediger, set out to return alone to his home. Some days later his tracks were found across a glacier, but his body has not been dis covered.
 Two Italian gentlemen on August 12 ascended the Col du Geant with we'll known guide named Brunod. He left them to fill a water bottle near the summit. On returning to the party he slipped and fell distance of one thou sand feet, and whom the others reached him he was dead. Six years later Count Villanova-of Turin left the can- the ascent of Mont Blanc by a new route. He had with him two we'll known guides, one of whom has long been regarded as among the half dozen most competent guides in the Alps. Not one of the party has been heard from since. This is one of the very few casualties which, in recent years, have occurred on the slopes of Mont Blanc. The tracks of the party were discovered after few days upon the upper DOT tion of the Mage glacier. The proba- bility is that the party canped ct Q great elevation on the evening of Au- gust IS and were lost in a great storm that occurred on the 18th. The tour ists were very wealthy, and the most extraordinary efforts have been made to recover their bodies, but without success.
 Seven days later Carrel, an Alpine Io ,- eers all over the world, whose name appears in every Alpine book that has been written within the last twenty years, met an honorable and indeed a glorious death on his own mountain. It was he who made the first ascent of the Matterhorn from the Italian side, and also accompanied MT. Whymper on his ascent of Chim borazo. On his last fatal trip he led Sig. Sinigaglia and a comrade from the cabin on the Italian side to the foot of the mountains in perhaps the worst snowStorm that ever ragged on that famous mountain. For fourteen hours the party of three con- tended with the bitter cold, during which they did not dare stop to take food. Carrel, as usual, in spite of his  rather advanced years, took the lions share of the work. At length they reached a place of safety at the foot of the mountain. No sooner had they emerged from danger than Carrel cried out: "I know no longer where 1 am. I have no strength left" We tried to lift him. writes Sig. Sinigaglia, ''but it was impossible. He was getting stiff. We stopped down and whispered in his ear if he wished to commend his soul to God With a last effort he answered faintly: Yes and then fell on his back dead in the snow."
 The accident was not due to any rash ness or carelessness. The party had chosen a fine day for the journey, but most sudden and most unexpected change in the weather occurred when the party had gained the comparative safety and shelter of the hut far up the mountain side. There they remained one day and two nights. but were final ly driven out in the storm by the neces- sity of procuring food. and it was not