Terrible as were the disasters recorded above, they are out-
done by the destruction by flood of a hotel and village at St. Gervais, near Chamounix, early on Tuesday morning. It is believed that a piece of the Bionnay glacier broke away, and fell into the bed of a mountain-torrent, which lower down flows by the hotel at St. Gervais. This obstruction for a time dammed up the water and formed a sort of lake. Soon, how- ever, the dam gave way, and precipitated upon the valley below a wall of water, hurrying with it rocks as big as " cottages." This explanation is, however, more or less con- jectural. All that is certainly known is that the visitors at the hotel were awakened at a quarter past 2 on Tuesday morning by the noise of rushing water. Then a furious gust of wind swept down the gorge, and the next moment the hotel was in the midst of a hell of waters, which soon swept it from the face of the earth. Up to now, 126 bodies have been dis- covered, but it is believed that at least 160 persons must have perished. Strangely enough, one of the dead is a Dane who, after escaping from the steamer whose boiler exploded, came on to St. Gervais. If, as seems not impossible, the week ends with the flooding of the valleys on the slopes of Etna by waves of lava, the tale of horror will be one of the fullest ever recorded in seven days.
