Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-03-15
MELTING LIKE WAX.
ALL MOUNTAINS WILL VANISH IN THE
COURSE OF TIME.

scientific congress in Rome that call
mountains will vanish off the face of the
earth in course Of time. /" We do not
doubt it, for it is divinely foretold that
the earth itself will disappear 1.-THE end
of time However, the Frenchman's
prophecy is already in course of realiza-
ton. The Ardennes, the Pyrenees and
the mountains of Provence are going to
peices by degrees in our own age The
mighty Himalayas, as if weary of ''rear-
ing their forms sublime" through SO
many generations, nodded their heads
in one place two years ago and hurled
into the valleys below mass of debris
which was estimated at 500, 900, 900
tons. The largest locomotive on the fast
trains Of the Hudson River railway
weighs only 60 tons. That Asiatic
mountain slide, therefore, caused an ava
lanche equivalent to the tumble of about
Is, 900, 900 such locomotives off bridge
10, 200 feet high. Little wonder that
"the noise was terrific" and that "the
natives were frightened. Masses of
rock were hurled mile away, and
''many blocks Of dolomitic limestone,
weighing from 80 to SO tons, were sent
like cannon balls through the air.
In 1881, in the Alps, there was an
immense hill fall, caused by it's human
undermining in order to obtain slate for
school use. The mining began in 1868.
In 1875 the Plattenberkoph split across
its crown, and after progressive enlarge
ments for years, which caused comment
and forebodings, it fell in the year
named. This catastrophe precipitated
about $4,000, 900 cubic yards Of rock
1,475 feet downward into the valley.
The debris ricochetted across the valley
and rolled 325 feet up the opposite slope,
where it was canted over sideways, and
then poured like liquid over a horizon
tai plane of about 8, 700, 900 square feet
and to depth of from 35 to 70 feet.
One-half Of the village of Elm was
overwhelmed, and it was so swiftly
cleft by the resistless mass that the line
was sharply defined, and one house was
cut in two. One hundred and fifteen
people were buried. One home was left
on the very verge, of which the doors
were open, the fire burned, the table
was set, the coffee was hot, but no liv-
ing soul was left. The head of the
household was saved, but his entire fam
lily, who were out looking at the noun
tain fall, were lost. The debris damned
up a river, for which channel was
blasted afresh. New soil was carried in
to the valley, and spread over the ruins
where harvests now smile again, and
the people go about their work us if
there were no such thing as an ava
lanche in this humbling and cruml,ling
world.
The process of change in earth levels
in all lands is illustrated in your I'M
paved back yard or village street after
heavy rains. Each tiny rivulet no larger
than your little finger has it's floods, it's
narrower limits where it runs in its
square foot of harder soil, and is there /
by pinched sideways, it's sudden shallow
ing and widening where the soil is soft
er, and the panic stricken ants or be-
draggled beetles are caught in their
miniature world and routed as men are
on larger SCALE Ten feet square of
back yard may illustrate the succession
Of events which make seas shallower
and mountains lower. The srrcharged
warm cloud gets chill as it caresses the
head Of some dignified peak, the sudden
condensation upsets the shower out Of
the atmosphere's myriad cell buckets,
and the torrent rushes down the breasts
and limbs of the mountains SO swiftly
that the surprised soil catches the spirit
Of panic and forgets to obey gravitation
until it finds itself at sea and almost out
of sight of shore. That transfer of earth
leaves the hills thinner and deposits
that which makes the river or bay or
sea somewhat less deep. People live in
the lowlands near their grain and fruits,
and these thrive on the alluvium wash
ed down by torrents and flood. That
theft of matter makes the mountains
bareheaded and puts the valley under
obligation to the storms which feed the
crops with plant nutriment stolen from
above Like man, the harvests lift their
eyes to the hills, whence their help
comes. The mountains are being carried
into the sea, and man demands tribute
as they pass.
The forces Of nature and the elements
in battle, like the gospel, are Jewelers.
They bring down the mighty and lift up
the lowly. One Of these days the earth
must be resurveyed. The aspirations Of
the hills will have been reduced; the
depths Of the rivers, bays and oceans
will be less. Men who journey by water
may return to the plans and proportions
that best suited those who built the ark,
and they may see that Noah knew some
thing about shipbuilding, notwithstand-
ing our Americans, Auranias and Cam
panias. David may have had thought
of all this when he said, ''The hills
melted like wax at the presence of the
Lord" Isaiah wrote, "The mountains
flowed down at thy presence. Ezekiel
said, s'The mountain shall be thrown
down, and the steep places shall fall"
If those Alpine jewellers at Elm read
their Bibles, they must have thought of
these passages after they recovered from
their surprise Northwestern Christian
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