The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-05-02

tierre, May 1.-Samuel Gauthier, a
farmer of st. Adams, his wife Emily,
their sons Joseph and David Gauthier
and a brother, are buried under a
hundred feet of earth by the terrible
landslide of Friday last.
The principal scene of the accident
is eighteen miles from the nearest tel
egraph station, and this is the reason
why news of this terrible freak of ma
ture was not given sooner to the out
side world.
Naught but DesoIatiOn.
For miles there is nothing but desc
lation. Where the ST. Anne river was
once, nearly a mile wide, it is now
only a narrow stream, raging and
surging in a vain attempt to break its
new bounds.
Woods, houses, cattle-all are gone
and nothing is left but barren ground
| of uneven height for six miles back.
Here and there the debris of the i'll
fated farm houses, granaries and out
houses are seen in little heaps, tan
gled up with uprooted trees and car
casses of dead cattle, but most of 1t
has been swept into the river and car
ried, long since, into the st. Lawrence
and thence toward the ocean.
The shores of the river are of pecu-
liar formation and rise a hundred and
fifty feet above the level of the water
except for a mile or so where the slide
occurred. Here for almost seven
miles back the earth has a gentle de-
clivity and nearly level with the river,
whose bed has risen at least sixty feet.
When the Earth Moved.
What the scene must have been
when the earth began to move can be
imagined The lower soil of. the river
bank is composed of clay honey
cembed by the water, that for years
back has filtered through from the
mountains.
1t was o'clock in the evening when
these clay banks cavSd in and with
slid into the river. The farmers were
just preparing for supper. The noise
was terrific, but was followed by sud
den calm, for the roar of the falls had
been smothered in the crumbling
earth.
The ground, however, kept on vi
brating as from an earthquake, and
the farmers for miles around rushed
out of their houses for shelter, which
they did not know where to find. AT
ter the first panic was somewhat al
layed, they went back, but the river
had slowly risen, snow and ice
which is still plentiful here, helping to
strengthen its power.
The water rose for miles. 1t was
fully 100 feet high when the earth be-
gan again moving, first slowly, then
faster and finally so fast that those
who were fleeing were thrown down
1t is miracle, indeed, no more human
lives were lost.
Buried or Smothered.
The ground near the river slipped of
first and the first house was that OF
the Gauthiers, which shared the fate
of the pulp mills farther down by the
first break in the shore. There is not
the slightest doubt but the poor eau
thier family are dead.
/ When the land slide started, the
house was seen to be on fire, and ever
had they not been buried or smothere6
/ to death, they must have been crushed
under the immense quantities of eartf
that kept sliding on top of them. M
one is really certain as to the exac
spot where they were buried and it /!
possible the bodies may never be re
( covered.
{ 1t is difficult to exactly describe thu
state of affairs. The debris of thu
houses and the dead animals are stu
ated in what was before Friday tht
middle of the river. Even today it il
impossible to cross the river, although
an attempt will be made to repair thu
bridge at ST. Adams this afternoon
All the boats for miles around haV'
been swept away. Thousands of peopl
crowded the banks and point out to on
another where the farmers or thei
friends stood.