Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1889 — Avalanches. [ARTICLE]

Avalanches.

Only a moderate amount of snow fell in the autumn and early winter of 188788 in the canton of Grubunden; about NeAV Year there was considerably less than the average quantity. On the heights of the mountains this coating of scanty shoav hardened, under the action of the sun, Avind, and intense frost, into a smooth, solid, and icy crust, Therefore, Avhen a lieav-v snowfall began in February, which lasted without intermission for six days and nights, accumulating an average of five or six feet on the crust of earlier snow I haA r e described, this neAv deposit was everyAvliere insecure. It slipped in immense masses from the polished surface of the old snoAV, having no support, no roughness to which it could adhere, and rushed by its own weight into the valleys at points Avliere ordinary and more slowly acting causes are not wont to launch the thunderbolts of winter. For the same reason successive avalanches descended upon the same tracks. As soon as one deposit had glided from its slippery ice foundation and another snoAvfall happened, the phenomenon Avas repeated, the crust of old snow still remaining treacherously firm and smooth upon the steep declivities. A postilion, Avho drove the post all this Avinter over the Fluela Pass (the highest in Grubunden. and the highest Avhich is open for regular winter traffic in Europe), told me that he had counted betAveen fifty and sixty avalanches, which traversed the actual post road, and some of these were repeated half a dozen times. As the same conditions affected all the other passes of Grubunden, Bernina, Albula, Julier, Splugen, and Bernhardin, it will readily be conceived that traffic Avas occasionally suspended for several days together, that the arrivals and departures of the post Avere irregular, and that many lives were sacrificed. Singularly enough, no fatal accidents happened to the Saauss post service. Those Avho suffered were men employed to mend the roads, carters, and peasants engaged in felling Avood. Foav valleys in the canton escaped w ithout the loss of some lives, and the tale is still incomplete ; for. the most remote regions Avere entirely shut off for months together from the outer Avorld by enormous avalanches, Avhicli interrupted all communications. We do not yet know, and unless an official report be published on the subject we shall probably never knoAvliow many human beings fell victims to the fury of the; elements this Avinter .—Cornhill Magazine. A conn trust is about tq be formed. It is strange that those Avho will be as feoted by it don’t move an estoppel,