Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-30
MANY SWISS LANDSL|PS
DESTROYED VILLAGES AND
CAUSED GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.
Catastrophe Of the Rossberg, Near
Lucerne, in 18O6-People Be.
lieved Mountain Had Moved.

From the Field
The terrible Swiss floods have brought
about many landslips and caused the ex-
pectation of more In many cases, in
deed, villages have been evacuated for
fear lest they should be overwhelmed,
and that has notably been done in the
case of certain villages on the slopes Of
the Rossberg. near Lucerne, a mountain
already famous as the scene of one of the
most disastrous landslips in Swiss his
tory.
1t was a landsip. in fact, on so i'm
mense a scale that many of the accounts
of it speak of the mountain itself as
falling. and though it happened as long
ago as 1906. one is still perpetually invit-
ed to read about it i'm those popular
almanacs in which the Swiss keep alive
the memory of the most sensational oc-
currences in their annals The equilibrium
Of the mountain, it seems had long SEEM
ed unstable and wet summer. such as
the present, brought the climax. A huge
slice on the side of the mountain slid
away, the place from which it fell being
found TO be thousand feet i'm depth by
a hundred feet in breadth AS it fell the
mass spread itself out till it was at least
three miles in length
Villages Crushed.
1t shot across the valley with the
swiftness of cannon ball, and the vii
lagos in its path We're cracked I'D like
eggshel1s. The portion of it which reach
ed the little lake of Lowertz about five
miles away, raised a wave seventy feet
high, which washed out the hamlets on
the banks Other rocks were flung high
up the slopes of the Rigi. and moved
down the trees like chain shot The total
number of people. who persisted in the
disaster is given at 457 Similar and
hardly less disastrous was the comnara-
lively recent landsip at Elm in the Can
ton Glarus, though there the hand of
man helped nature to bring about the
mischief. The Plattenbergkopf above the
valley contained a bed of slate Conces-
sion was granted for working ii and the
concessionaires worked recklessly, practi-
calIy undermining the mountain
Presently, in 1879, q great fissure was
seen in it behind the top of the hill. This
crack got longer and wider. all the sur
face drainage flowing into it, and its eff
feet being, as it were, to cut the crown of
the mountain OF. By the end of August,
1881, the crack was more than four me-
tiers wide. September Z rocks began
breaking off and rolling down the hill,
and work in the quarry was suspended.
September 10. certain men described as
experts examined the mountain and re-
ported that there was no imme date dan
ger and no need for the villagers to quit
their homes, and on the following day
events gave the experts the lie. The
crown Of the mountain came off in three
pieces, causing three separate landslips.
Succession Of Slips.
The first fall, which occurred just after
) O'Clock in the morning did no harm. but
frightened the villagers into determine
ton to pack and depart. They began to
pack at their leisure; but after an interval
of seventeen minutes the second fall took
place. knocking over five houses includ-
ing the village inn, and killing twenty
people. Those who escaped ran for their
lives until they imagined that they had
reached a place of safety.
Then came the third fall-the greatest
of all-overtaking them even in their
refuge. The wind that the landslide
drove before it blew trees about like
matches and lifted houses into the air
like feathers. 1t flowed like liquid,