Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1879 — Under an Avalanche. [ARTICLE]

Under an Avalanche.

A correspondent of the London Daily News writes: Only a few hours journey from the spot where her Majesty has been enjoying her villeggiatura occurred a scene of disaster and death rarely paralleled in these regions of’ snowdrift and avalanche. The Simplon Pass is the route by which more than lO.OOt) ' Italian workmen annually make their way into Switzerland and France in quest of employment, and it was oh some l thirty-two of these wayfarers that the visitation descended. Such was the snowfall on the second instant that the courier could not pros-ecute-his journey with sledges. A stalwart pedestrian offered to take the letter bags, and, after herculean efforts, he reached the hospice at eleven a. m., and-there found seventy Italian workmen on their way partly for Switzerland, partly for France. He said that if they wanted to start they must do so that very day, as every minute’s postponement increased the risk from the snowfall. Accordingly, three companies of there Italians set out at once, and by one in the afternoon arrived at .Refuge Six, where they rested, as the snow was coming down with increased force and density. Two sturdy Swiss Souths attached to the refuge offered to conduct the travelers, and off the three companies set once more, with their two guides at the head. Hardly, however, nad they emerged from the

middle gallery, called La Vieile Calorie—tne most dangerous past of the Simplon route—before an enormous avalanche descended from tho mountain, carrying with it the two guides and an Italian Workman. The rest of the 'travelers who remained Inr the gallery were so far safe, but noth ends of the gallery were blocked up with snow. They were in despair, and already the cold was beginning to tell on the children of the party. Suddenly a man’s voice rose above the wailing: “We might as well die under an avalanche as under a gallery. Let us try and get out” He set to work, and succeeded in excavating a passage through the snow, and arrived half dead at Refuge Six, whence the alarm was passed on to the hospice. By this time it was 7:80 in the evening. The monks attaohed to the hospice repaired to the scene of disaster, and with the aid of two servants of Refuge Six they saved the inmates of the gallery and accommodated them comfortably at the hospice, leaving a few whose strength could carry them no further at the refuge. The three companies of travelers having been settled for the night, the monks were anxious to return and do what conld be done for the two guides and their companions who had been carried away by the avalanche, but the darkness and the constant succession of avalanches that were thundering at short intervals over the precipices forbade. One of the two guides, an athlete in strength and nimbleness, managed, as he rolled down with the avalanche, to keep his alpenstock in his hand, and when he came to a dead stop he felt that the point of his stick just protruded from the snow above him. Working away with what strength remained to him, he extricated himself from the avalanche, but here his powers failed him, and he was able only to call for help. His cries reached the refuge, and its inmate, with a servant of the hospice, set out in the direction of the guide. But they had not walked five minutes before an immense avalanche hnrled them to the foot of the mountain. The inmate of the refuge perished, leaving a young widow ana a two-year-old boy. The servant of the hospice, however, escaped; though, when rolling with the avalanche, he thought he must have died every minute from the snow and earth that found its way into his mouth, and was likely to choke him. He turned on his face, and relieved himself of the mauvaise bouche, till, the avalanche having stopped, he disengaged himself from the snow, and after severe efforts gained the refuge in a fainting state about two in the morning. During that terrible night he said that the roar of the descending avalanche was deafening. »