One of the most beautiful spots in the Swiss portion
of the beautiful valley of the Inn has suffered a terrible calamity. Zernetz, situated just at the point where a little cross-valley from Male in the Vintschgau, strikes the Engadine, was all but destroyed by fire on September 5. Like most of the villages in this part of Switzerland, it was almost wholly built of wood and roofed with pine—dry as magnificent weather could make it, —and in a few hours 115 houses were burnt to the ground and 400 villagers rendered homeless. All the houses ought, under a very recent Swiss Act, to have been insured ; but it had not yet come into full operation, and many of these poor people are utterly ruined. The demeanour of the peasants is described as having been, as is usual in these far too frequent calamities, curiously dignified and manly,—grateful to pathos to those who volunteered to help them, but entirely devoid of solicitation, express or implied. The Engadine, which is celebrated both for its scenery and its pastry, has conferred many pleasures of taste (in both kinds) on Londoners, and contributed many cooks to all the European capi- tals. Might we not help to rebuild Zernetz? It is announced in the Times that Mr. Arthur E. V. Strettell (banking with Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, and Co., Lombard Street) will receive and trans- mit to the Mayor of Zernetz any contributions sent to him. We may add that Zernetz, like all the Romansch towns, is Protestant.
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