Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1892-10-08

days in the spring Of 1886 furrowed and
desolated a thousand acres of the
country above Nicolosi.
The ascent of Mount Etna, though
one Of the most tedious and arduous, is
one of the most remuneratiye, 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
sudden dart of light crosses space,
fleeing over the sea. That dart in
creases into golden streak, clearly
cut, for perceptible moment, on the
purplish water. 1t changes to a food
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; it 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 Dor
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 as tangi-
BILE sign of his dominion, Lord Ktna
stretches his enormous triangular
shadow
The catastrophe at st. Geryais-les-
Bains was of 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 a landslip had occurred in
connection with the shifting of the gla-
cier, and had buried the villages and
hamlets in its 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 a mountain torrent of
Bon Nant, which flows through the viii
l lage of st. Gervais. A dam was thus
e formed, behind which the stream rap
4 idly rose, and finally carried the bar
rier away from the mountain side.
$ This torrent, rolling huge masses of
7 rock and ice, destroyed the hamlets of
d Bionnassay and La Fayet, the village
e of st. Gervais and the hotel and bath
e houses, which lay about six hundred
e feet further down the mountain.
st. Gervais is watering place with
I sulphurous springs and is a favorite
D summer resort. 1t lies in the wooded
a ravine of Montjoie, half a mile from
] the Chamonix road on the Bon Nant.
d The baths of st. Gervais We're in five
= separate buildings, Joined by stone
: wall, erected in a narrow gorge. They
4 were situated about s, 066 feet above the
sea, on the road from Geneva to Cha.
monk. Nearly one hundred deaths
must have resulted from the disaster.