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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
lake was all thq , t remained of the tow ? n of Lowertz , its church was demolished ; but the tower yet stood amid the ruins , shattered , but not thrown down . The figures ,
wjbich animated this part of the drawing , were a few miserable peasants , left to grope among the wrecks of one half of their village . Thje foreground of the pic lure was a wide desolate sweep of earth and stones , relieved by the shattered roof of a neighbouring cottage , Ottc the left hand spread the blue and tranquil surface of the lake of Zugy on the margin , of which
yet stands the pleasant village of Art , almost in contact with the r $ in § , and trembling even in its preservation . ^ £ * We proceeded , in our
descent , along the side of the Rigi , toward the half . buried village of Lpwertz . 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 survi . vors whow re exploring the ruins of the place * A nuipber ofrjewmade graves , iparked with a fttain 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
southera 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 promise * of au-
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tumnal plenty * The shores of this lake were covered with ruins of huts , with hay , with fumituie 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 , prece . ded by a priest , were carrying it to a more decent burial . We
hoped that this sight would have concluded the horrors of this da ^' s scenery , and that we should sool escape from every painful vestige of the calamity of Schweitz . But we continued to find ielics of
ruined buildings for a league along the wHoje extent of this lake ; and a little beyond the two islands , mentioned above , we saw , lying on the shpre 5 the stiff body of a peasant , which had been washed up by tfye wewes and which two
i $ en were examining , to ascertain wlierq he belonged . Our guide instantly knew it to be one of the inhabitants of Goldau : But I will ' ¦ , <<¦ - - '" ¦ ¦ „ mention no more particulars . Some perhaps thai have been related to me are not * crie < Jible , 4 nd others
which are credible are too painfwl - * ' T ^ bg immediate cause of this calamitous event is not yet sufficiently ascertained , and probably never will . The fall of parts
pf hills is not uncommon - , and in Switzerland especially , there are several instances recorded 01 the descent of large masses of earth and stones . But so sudden
and extensive a ruin as this , was * perhaps , never produced by tbc fall of a mountain . It can w compared only Xo the de * trito
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730 Letter from Mr . Buckminster to Arthur M * Walter , Esq %
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1814, page 736, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2447/page/8/
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