edly, solicitously, inconceivably, incontrovertibly." An opportunity of using these, is, to a distressed spinner, as delightful as a copy, all m's and n's, to a child. "Command you may, your mind from play." They run on with such delicious smoothness!

I have known a judicious selection of such, cunningly arranged, and neatly linked together, with a few monosyllables, interjections, and well-chosen epithets (which may be liberally inserted with good general effect), so worked up as to form altogether a very respectable and even elegant composition, such as, amongst the best judges of that peculiar style, is pronounced to be "a charming letter." Then the pause the break- has altogether a picturesque effect. Longtailed letters are not only beautiful in themselves, but the use of them necessarily creates such a space between the lines, as helps one honorably and expeditiously over the ground to be filled up. The tails of your g's and y's in particular may be boldly flourished with a "down-sweeping" curve, so as beautifully to obscure the line underneath, without rendering it wholly illegible. This last, however, is but a minor grace, a mere illumination of the manuscript, on which I have touched rather by accident than design. I pass on to remarks of greater moment.

*

LESSON CXXXVI.

Destruction of Goldau and other Villages in Switzerland. Extracted from a Letter, dated Geneva, 26th Sept., 1806. BUCKMINSTER.

THERE is an event 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 charm

ing 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 Rigit and Rossberg on the others. Here, but three weeks ago, was one of the most delightfully fertile valleys 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 more than fourteen hundred peasants, overspreads the valley of Lowertz.

About five o'clock in the evening of the 3d of September, a large projection of the mountain of Rossberg, 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, everything 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

Pron Shwites.

† g hard, i like ē.

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 pilgrimage to a distant abbey.

The disastrous consequences of this event extend further than the loss of such a number of inhabitants 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 labor over the Rigi. The former channel 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 neighboring villages are still trembling with apprehension of some remote consequence, 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

Pron, shat-to.

7

entombed, they heard the cries of creatures who were perishing around them, for want of that succor which they were so happy as to receive. Indeed, it is the opinion of many wellinformed 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 neighboring 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 unhurt. The consternation, into which the neighboring towns of Art and Schweitz were thrown, appears indeed to have left them incapable of contriving and executing those labors, which an enlightened compassion would dictate.

The mountain of Rossberg, as well as the Rigi, and other mountains in its vicinity, is 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 it first moved from its base, slid for some distance before it precipitated itself into the valley. The height of the Spitzberg

the name of the projection which fell- above the lake and valley of Lowertz, was little less feet.

than two thousand

Rigi, of which the

The composition of the chain of 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 granitic in its whole mass, and though nearly six thousand feet above the

It

sea, is green and even fertile to its summit. It is composed of nothing but earth and stone, combined in rude masses. 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 pyritic rocks, and also to the whole chain of the Jura.

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. In 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, towards 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 mountains, which fell, and were 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,