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empty to Berne, while we prepared for our excursion into the mountains. We began by crossing the lake of Lucerne to Russnacht, thence over a strip of land to Imisee on the lake of Zug; thence to Art at its southern extremity, and thence along the small lake of Lowertz to Boünner, where we again embarked for Altorf. In this day's tour we were in three of the small cantons, Zug, Schwitz, and Uri. At Altorf properly commenced our passage into the mountains, along the road which leads over the St. Gothard into Italy. The path lies near the banks of the Reuss, which it frequently crosses, especially by the famous Pont du Diable. This road into Italy is passable only by mules and pedestrians, to which latter class we had the honour for three days to belong.

We travelled on foot as far as Hopital, a small village in the valley of Urseren, at the foot of St. Gothard. Here we took mules to carry us over the difficult passes of the Furea and the Grimsel, two of the vast chain of Alps which laid between us and Berne. The 14th September we crossed the Furea, being obliged to descend from our mules, and wade through snow above our knees, because the customary path was entirely concealed. We descended then to the source of the Rhone, and to the village of Oberyestelen in the Haut Valais, from which point we be-, gan to ascend the Grimset. If you have a good map, you will see that we here made a very devious track, because the shortest route, which leads over the Mayenwund, was rendered impassable by the snow. At five o'clock we reached the summit of the Grimsel, 7000 feet above the sea, and the highest point of our peregrinations; we slept this night to what is called

the Hospice of the Grimsel. The next day we descended to Meyringen and left our mules, thence across the lakes of Brienz and Thun to Thun, where we took a carriage for Berne. At this capital we found our empty voiture, and our trunks safe, and set off the next day for Lausanne. We passed through Morat, Avenches, Payerne, and Moudon, all Roman cities and full of antiquities, and arrived the 19th at Lausanne, which was totally uninteresting to us, except as the favourite residence of Gibbon. The next day we travelled over one of the most superb chaussées in the world to Geneva. Nothing remained now but to visit Chamouni and the glaciers of Mont Blanc, which by the blessing of heaven we have safely accomplished in four days, and are ready to set off for Paris tomorrow morning. From this sketch of our wanderings, you will see that we have made a pretty complete tour through Switzerland, by travelling less, probably, than four hundred miles.

Excuse the meagre aspect of this itinerary. You know it would be absurd to attempt to give in a letter a proper journal of one's travels; and to pretend to describe any spot particularly interesting would be only to repeat what you may easily find in books. All I mean by this sketch is to let you know where your friend has been; perhaps too it may refresh for a little while your geographical recollection.

There is an event, however, which happened just before our arrival in Switzerland, of which no particular account may have yet reached America, and which I think cannot be uninteresting, especially to those of our friends. who have visited this charming country. Indeed it is too disastrous

to be related or read with indifference.

If you have a large map of Switzerland, I beg of you to look for a spot in the canton of Schweitz, situated between the lakes of Zug and Lowertz on two sides, and the mountains of Rigi and Rossberg on the others. Here, but three weeks ago, was one of the most delightfully fertile vallies of all Switzerland; green, and luxuriant, adorned with several little villages, full of secure and happy farmers. Now three of these villages are forever effaced from the earth, and a broad waste of ruins, burying alive fourteen hundred peasants, overspreads the valley of Lowertz.

About 5 o'clock in the evening of the third of September a large projection of the mountain of Ross berg, on the north east, gave way, and precipitated itself into this valley; and in less than four minutes completely overwhelmed the three villages of Goldau, Busingen, and Rathlen, with a part of Lowertz and Oberart. The torrent of earth and stones was far more rapid than that of lava, and its effects as resistless and as terrible. The mountain in its descent carried trees, rocks, houses, every thing before it. The mass spread in every direction, so as to bury completely a space of charming country, more than three miles square. The force of the earth must have been prodigious, since it not only spread over the hollow of the valley, but even ascended far up the opposite side of the Rigi. The quantity of earth, too, is enormous, since it has left a considerable hill in what was before the centre of the vale. A portion of the falling mass rolled into the lake of Lowertz, and it is calculated that a fifth part is filled up. On a minute map

you will see two little islands marked in this lake, which have been admired for their picturesqueness. One of them is famous for the residence of two hermits, and the other for the remains of an ancient chateau, once belonging to the house of Hapsburg. So large a body of water was raised and pushed forward by the falling of such a mass into the lake, that the two islands, and the whole village of Seven, at the southern extremity, were, for a time, completely submerged by the passing of the swell. A large house in this village was lifted off its foundations and carried half a mile beyond its place. The hermits were absent on a pil grimage to the abbey of Einsideln.

The disastrous consequences of this event extend further than the loss of such a number of inhabi tants in a canton of little population. A fertile plain is at once converted into a barren tract of rocks and calcareous earth, and the former marks and boundaries of property obliterated. The main road from Art to Schweitz is completely filled up, so that another must be opened with great labour over the Rigi. The former chan

nel of a large stream is choked up, and its course altered; and as the outlets and passage of large bodies of water must be affected by the filling up of such a portion of the lake, the neighbouring villages are still trembling with apprehension of some remote consequences, against which they know not how to provide. Several hundred men have been employed in opening passages for the stagnant waters, in forming a new road for foot passengers along the Rigi, and in exploring the ruins. The different cantons have contributed to the relief of the suffering canton of Schweitz, and every head is at

work to contrive means to prevent further disasters.

The number of inhabitants buried alive under the ruins of this mountain, is scarcely less than fifteen hundred. Some even estimate it as high as two thousand. Of these, a woman and two children have been found alive, after having been several days under ground. They affirm that while they were thus entombed, they heard the cries of poor creatures who were perishing around them, for want of that succour which they were so happy as to receive. Indeed it is the opinion of many well informed people, that a large number might still be recovered; and a writer in the Publiciste goes so far as to blame the inactivity of the neighbouring inhabitants; and quotes many well-attested facts to prove that persons have lived a long time, buried under snow and earth. This at least is probable in the present case, that many houses, exposed to a lighter weight than others, may have been merely a little crushed, while the lower story, which in this part of Switzerland is frequently of stone, may have remained firm, and thus not a few of the inhabitants escaped unburt. The consternation into which the neighbouring towns of Art and Schweitz were thrown, appears indeed to have left them incapable of contriving and execut ing those labours which an enlightened compassion would dictate.

The mountain of Rossberg, as well as the Rigi, and other mountains in its vicinity, are composed of a kind of brittle calcareous earth, and pudding stone, or aggregated rocks. Such a prodigious mass as that which fell, would easily crumble by its own weight, and spread over a wide surface. The bed of the mountain, from which

the desolation came, is a plane inclined from north to south. Its appearance, as it is now laid bare, would lead one to suppose that the mass, when first moved from its base, slid for some distance before it precipitated itself into the valley. The height of the Spitsberg (the name of the projection which fell) above the lake and valley of Lowertz, was little less than two thousand feet. The composition of the chain of the Rigi, of which the Rossberg makes a part, has always been an obstacle in the way of those system makers, who have built their hypotheses upon the structure of the Alps. It has nothing granitich in its whole mass, and though nearly six thousand feet above the sea, is green and even fertile to its summit. It is composed of nothing but earth and stone, combined in rude masses. It is also remarkable that the strata of which it is composed, are distinctly inclined from the north toward the south, a character which is common to all rocks of this kind through the whole range of Alps, as well as to the greater part of calcareous, schistous, and pyritick rocks, and also to the whole chain of the Jura.

In

It was about a week after the fall of the mountain, that our route through Switzerland led us to visit this scene of desolation; and never can I forget the succession of melancholy views, which presented themselves to our curiosity. our way to it, we landed at Art, a town situated at the southern extremity of the lake of Zug; and we skirted along the western boundary of the ruins, by the side of Mount Rigi, toward the lake of Lowertz. From various points on our passage, we had complete views of such a scene of destruction, as no words can adequately describe.

Picture to yourself a rude and mingled mass of earth and stones, bristled with the shattered parts of wooden cottages, and with thousands of heavy trees, torn up by the roots, and projecting in every direction. In one part you might see a range of peasants' huts, which the torrent of earth had reached with just force enough to overthrow and tear in pieces,but without bringing soil enough to cover them. In another were mills broken in pieces by huge rocks, transported from the top of the mountain, which fell, and carried high up the opposite side of the Rigi. Large pools of water had formed themselves in different parts of the ruins, and many little streams, whose usual channels had been filled up, were bursting out in various places. Birds of prey, attracted by the smell of dead bodies, were hovering all about the valley. But the general impression made upon us by the sight of such an extent of desolation, connected, too, with the idea that hundreds of wretched creatures were at that moment alive, buried under a mass of earth, and inaccessible to the cries and labours of their friends, was too horrible to be described or understood. As we travelled along the borders of the chaos of ruined buildings, a poor peasant, wearing a countenance ghastly with woe, came up to us to beg a piece of money. He had three children buried in the ruins of a cottage, which he was endeavouring to clear away. A little further on, we came to an elevated spot, which overlooked the whole scene. Here we found a painter seated on a rock, and busy in sketching its horrours. He had chosen a most favourable point. Before him, at the distance of more than a league, rose the Rossberg, from whose bare side had rushed

the destroyer of all this life and beauty. On his right was the lake of Lowertz, partly filled with the earth of the mountain. On the banks of this lake was all that remained of the town of Lowertz. Its church was demolished; but the tower yet stood amid the ruins, shattered, but not thrown down. The figure, which animated this part of the drawing, were a few miserable peasants, left to grope among the wrecks of one half their village. The foreground of the picture was a wide desolate sweep of earth and stones, relieved by the shattered roof of a neighbouring cottage. On the left hand spread the blue and tranquil surface of the lake of Zug, on the margin of which yet stands the pleasant village of Art, almost in contact with the ruins, and trembling even in its preservation.

We proceeded, in our descent, along the side of the Rigi, toward the half-buried village of Lowertz. Here we saw the poor curate, who is said to have been a spectator of the fall of the mountain. He saw the torrent of earth rushing toward his village, overwhelming half his people, and stopping just before his door! What a situation! He appeared, as we passed, to be superintending the labours of some of the survivors, who were exploring the ruins of the place. A number of new made graves, marked with a plain pine cross, showed where a few of the wretched victims of this catastrophe had just been interred.

Our course lay along the borders of the enchanting lake of Lowertz. The appearance of the slopes, on the eastern and southern sides, told us what the valley of Goldau was a few days since, smiling with varied vegetation, gay with villages and cottages, and bright with promises of autumnal plenty. The

shores of this lake were covered with ruins of huts, with hay, with furniture and clothes, which the vast swell of its waters had lodged on the banks. As we were walking mournfully along toward Schweitz, we met with the dead body of a woman, which had been just found. It was stretched out on a board, and barely covered with a white cloth. Two men, preceded by a priest, were carrying it to a more decent burial. We hoped that this sight would have concluded the horrours of this day's scenery, and that we should soon escape from every painful vestige of the calamity of Schweitz. But we continued to find relicks of ruined buildings for a league along the whole extent of the lake; and a little beyond the two islands, mentioned above, we saw, lying on the shore, the stiff body of a peasant, which had been washed up by the waves, and which two men were examining, to ascertain where he belonged. Our guide instantly knew it to be one of the inhabitants of Goldau. But I will mention no more particulars. Some perhaps that have been related to me are not credible, and others which are credible are too painful.

The immediate cause of this calamitous event is not yet sufficiently ascertained and probably never will be. The fall of parts of hills is not uncommon; and in Switzerland especially there are several instances recorded of the descent of large masses of earth and stones. But so sudden and extensive a ruin as this was, perhaps, never produced by the fall of a mountain. It can be comC

Vol. IV. No. 1.

pared only to the destruction made by the tremendous eruptions of Etna and Vesuvius. Many persons suppose that the long and copious rains, which they have lately had in this part of Switzerland, may have swelled the mountains, in the Rossberg sufficiently to push this part of the mountain off its inclined base. But we saw no

marks of streams issuing from any part of the bed which is laid bare. Perhaps the consistency of the earth in the interiour of the mountain was so much altered by the moisture which penetrated into it, that the projection of the Spitzberg was no longer held by a sufficiently strong cohesion, and its own weight carried it over. Perhaps as the earth is calcareous, a kind of fermentation took place sufficient to loosen its foundations. But there is no end to conjectures. The mountain has fallen and the villages are no more.

I cannot but reflect upon wy weakness in complaining of our long delay at Strasburg. If we had not been detained there ten days, waiting for our passports, we should have been in Switzerland the 3d of September, probably in the vicinity of the lake of Lowertz

perhaps under the ruins of Goldau. Several travellers, or rather strangers, were destroyed; but whether they were there on business or for pleasure, I know not. Among them are several respectable inhabitants of Berne, and a young lady of fine accomplishments and amiable character, whose loss is much lamented. My dear friend, bless God that we are alive and enjoying so many comforts.

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