Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-08-11
THE HANGING TERROR OF ICE.
Professor ForeI's Explanation of the Re
cent Avalanche in the Savoy Alps.
fSprlnefield Republican,

iSprlngnela hepuDHcansI
Tho disaster by which the Savoysrd viii
lage of st. Gervais-les-Balns, on the direct
road from Geneva to Ohamouni aud Mt.
Blanc. and the smaller villages OF Favet
and Bionnay, III the valley OF the River
Arve. have suffered 80 terribly, turns out
to be one of the most remarkable IN that
long series OF avaanches that make the
human history of the Alps 80 thrilling and
so painful. IL seems, by the caretni
and scientific study which Professor Z.
A. Forel, OF Morges has made, that
high glacier on the Tetes-kousses, so
called, at an altitude of more than 10000
feet, let fall a glacial mass Of more than
35, 900 900 cubic feet down q height OF at
least 5000 feet: that this enormous mass
of ice and rock diseDgaged so much heat
by It's fall as TO melt as well as pulYerlze
the glacier-fTagTnent, which was further
melted by contact with the warm surfaces
and substances il encountered on its way,
was thus converted into viscOus mud, and
in that form rushed suddenly down on the
unlucky villages. The result was shock
ing. Professor Forel thus describes It:
"The molten mass was fluid enough TO
slip down a slope OF 10 feet In hundred;
1t was dense enough to overthrow every
thing in its passage L estimate that 10
spent about half Rn hour, perhaps little
more. in reaching the Arve from the point
of its fall. In few minutes everything
had gone by and there remained only
q coating of mud, covering all the
ruins with its infected and viscOus
slime. In this enormous fall from so great
a height, extending horizontally more
than eight miles, | find the most gigantic
example l know of glacial avalanche.
Ayalanches of 1000 feet fail. extending
four and a half miles, have been known,
but all others are of much smaller dimen-
sions. The condition of the muddy chan
mel in which the substance ian, shows
that il was viscous and not fluid mass;
for alongside of heaps OF mud. which L saw
driving slowly, flowers we're to be seen, only
from two to four inches OF, and ears OF
wheat that had not been wet nor soiled
by the mud. Again, in tho houses flooded
but not destroyed-in house at Bionnay,
for instance, used for school, the floor
was covered with mud. but a few inches
higher UP the scholars desks were not
soiled by dirty water, the walls were dry
&c. Now, dirty water, in order to deposit
O layer of mud ~ inches thick, must have
been or feet deep; but here the sheet OF
water did not much rise above the mud, rs
j saw it three days after II had 0een ue-
posted"
What adds to the singularity of this
disaster IS that no such avalanche has been
known TO occur in that region, nor was
this huge and distant glacier at all dreaded
by those who lived near 1t. Professor
FOrel says: Neither at st, Gervais nor
at Bionnay did anyone know of any such
calamity before but il is likely that tins
glacier did detach a few ayalanehes each
year, only, beng small. they did not reach
the villages"
In the three villages moro than $50 per-
sons seem TO have been destroyed. The
houses that remain are mostly unInhabI-
table. Where the sou has not been swept
away the crops are choked up with thick
LAYER of mud. The small animals have
perished. Happy are the families," says
one writer, that have been annihllated
with all that they possess" The question
is now raised whether the disaster could
not have been prevented. Professor Forel
says:
ave know that the glaciers Of the Mt.
Blanc group are at present all increasing;
and find in this event mourntul Illus
tration of a report addressed by me last
spring TO the government OF the Canton
Yaais, in which 1 set forth that oil the
catastrophes OF the high Alps are due, to
an advance of some glacier. / also called
upon the authorities OF that canton 10
have their glaciers inspected, since all
of them were beginning To grow and
move forward. The Cantonal Council
attended to the request, and gave the mat
tor in, charge to the inspector of forests.
II
so speedy of my fears. But could this
calamity have been foreseen, and would 1t
have been possible for an intelligent
supervision to have given notice TO those
III dangerg In the present case l think
not. Under other conditions 1t would be
possible. But here no one, as | think,
could have suspected danger so remote
and yet so awful"
IL seems that the particular glacier re-
sponsible for this accident is not that OF
Bionnay, nearest TO st. Gervais, but q
more formidable one higher up, beyond
the little village of Houches, the first IN
the vale of Chamouni, not far from which,
but still higher up, under the rocky peaks
of the Tetes-Rousses. in the best re-
gion tor the chamois-hunter, was this
hanging terror, known chiefly 10 these
hunters, which suddenly slipped from Its
perch, slid down a declivity OF 20
feet IN the hundred. passed to the right of
the glacier OF Bionnay, and then following
rayine Of the mountain torrents, fell
upon the Ill-fated villages which became
its prey. Few could have guessed that
such would have been Its course, even had
they known Its situation or Its condition.
1t should be added that the villages de-
stroyed, although in French territory, are
but few miles from the border OF the
Swiss canton of Valais which lies on the
headwaters of the Rhone and the slopes OF
the Mt. Blanc range.