disadvantage of remitting money at particular times must be obvious to our Commercial Friends. The 3 per cent. corsois this month have been from 631 to 63. The following are the average Prices of Navigable Canal Shares, Dock Stock, and Fire Office Shares, at the office of Mr. Scott, 25 Bridge-street, London:-The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, 6001. Share; the dividend for the half year to Christmas last was 181, net clear of the Property Tax.-Swansea, 851. dividing 51. per Share per annum.-Grand Trunk Mortgage Bonds, 871. 10s. per cent. bearing Interest at 51. per cent.-Ashton and Oldham, 961-Peak Forest, 581.-Grand Junction, 901.-Croydon, 601.-Kennet and Avon, Original Shares at 201.—New ditto, at 21. per Share Premium -West India Dock Stock at 1501 per cent. dividing 101. per cent. net.-London Dock, 1181.-East India Dock, 1231. -Globe Insurance, 1111. per cent.-Rock Life Insurance, s. to 4s. per Share Premium.Golden lane Brewery, 1021. per Share. -Southwark Porter Brewery, 101. per cent. Premium. MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. THE warm weather which succeeded the heavy rains in the early part of the month, has much improved the growth and appearance of Wheat, which stood well, and look very promising. The spring corn and the grass-seeds lately sown, are equally thriving; and those crops which were top dressed in the spring grow fast. In the Fens, where the farmers were much impeded by the rains, their spring sowing is finished; and the grain, already above ground, looks well. Some Winter Tares, on rich warm lands, have been already cut, and in anost situations are nearly ready for the scythe.-The average price of Wheat throughout England and Wales is 75s. 11d.; Barley, 38s.; Oats, 27s. 10d. The young Clovers are equally forward, and afford excellent keep for feeding Sheep, Ewes, and Lambs. The Turnips are generally in a state of great forwardness, and many acres are ready sown with the Sweedish sort. Those Lands, both open and inclosed, which are to be fallowed for Wheat, are every where broken up. The setting of Potatoes has this spring been very general, and much land finished. The Meadows, though somewhat late, begin to grow fast, and the Pastures in general afford a full bite to dairy and feeding stock, which have been for some time turned out; and owing to the late rapid improvements in the Pastures and artificial Grasses, a great demand has been made for all kinds of Live Stock, which have considerably advanced in value at the late Fairs.-In Smithfield Market, Beef fetches from 4s. 8d. to 5s. 8d.; Mutton, 5s. to 53. 8d.; Pork, 4s. 83. to 5s. 8d. Young fresh Horses, either for the Collar or Saddle, were never, at this season, dearer, or more in request. Sows and Pigs, and small Stores, find a quick Sale, being much wanted. The Orchards in the Inland and Fen Districts looked this spring beautiful, a fine blow, and very promising. The Gardens, in general, are equally good, shewing a profusion af Berry Fruit. NATURALIST'S MONTHLY REPORT. -Airs, vernal airs, Breathing the smell of groove and field, attune APRIL 19. The larch-trees are in flower. April 25. The hattborn has just put forth its leaves. N. B. When I speak of a tree being in leaf, I mean th." so many of its leaves are out that at a little distance it appears green. I this day saw for the first time the swallow and house martin; but a gentleman of my ag quaintance informs me that he has observed not only these, but also the sand martin, uearly a week ago. The swiff was first observed about the Sd of May. April 27. The borse chesnut and privet are in leaf; and the sice thorn is both in leaf and dower. The death-watch (ptinus tessellatus) of Linnæus begins to beat: it will continue to do so for about a month. This is an extremely interesting little insect, and, instead of exciting fear, is in the whole of its economy entitled to our highest admiration. It never beats except for a short time in the spring of the year; and thus circumstance alone is "surely suffi cient to put an end to all alarm respecting its noise being portentous of death." From the 20th to the 27th of April we have had a succession of clear dry weather; and ip in some of the days the heat was as great as it frequently is during summer. Since this time we had a considerable fall of rain. May 1. The nightingale is heard to sing. The white-treat (metacilla sylvia, of Linnæus) and the wheat ear (motacillœnanthe) are arrived. I this day saw the common copper butterfly (pepino pbleas) and the cockchaffer. Common fumitory(fuma ia officinalis) greater steckwort (stellaria bolostea) and Cuckio pint, (arum maculatum) are in flower. May 3. The cuckoo sings; and the shrub srails (selt araueran) appear abroad. The crown imperial, soft leaved cranesbill (granium_moli) glaucous leaved kulmia (kalmie glauca trailing daphne (daphne cucorum) are in flower. The bedzes are green; and the flowering stalks of the bawthorn begin to appear. For a few days past the perib have collected together in great numbers in some particular parts of the rivers where there is no current, and where the bottom of the water is covered with weeds, for the purpose of depositing their spawn. I was shewn one place where there must have been at least five hundred of these fish. The young fry of some species of fish are now swimming about in immense quantities in the shallows. Several of them are not more than a quarter of an inch in length, and they are much broader across the eyes than in any other part of their body. They are proba bly either roach or dace. May 10th. In consequence of the rain that has fallen in the course of the last fortnight, vegetation has come forward in a very surprizing manner Several of the trees which usually put forth their leaves at the distance of some days from each other, are ali coming into leaf nearly at once. The elm, the sak, the maple, and the time, are all beginning to appear green. The subterranecus trefoil (trifolium subterranum), germander (veronica charadeys), yellow burned Poppy (Glaucium luteum of Smith), the barebill (scilla nutaus of Smith), and the broom (spartium, scoparium), are in flower. The sedge warbler, called in this part of the country, spire chatter (motacilla salicaria), is ar rived, and its beautifully wild notes are now heard every day about the banks of the rivers. May 19th. The weather, for several days past, has been very clear and fine. Nearly all the more hardy fruit trees are in flower; and in consequence of the lateness of the season it is supposed that the crops will be very abundant. Hampshire. METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. Obfervations on the State of the Weather, from the 24th of April to the 24th of May, 1807, inclufive, Two Miles N.W. of St. Paul's. The quantity of rain fallen since the last Report, is equal to nearly four inches in height The temperature of this month has been at times uncommonly high on the 27th of April the thermometer stood at 75°, we were told that in some parts of Lone it was as high as 80° in the shade; here, however, it was not higher than 75°, to which it rest, also on tar int and 20 days of May: and on the 24th it rose to 80°. The first instance was the more remark able as within eight days of the time, viz. on the 19th the ground was covered with snow, and the thermometer two successive mornings was as low as 20°. The average temperature for the month is very nearly 599, which is about 49 higher than it was for the same persuad last year; and nearly 10° higher than it was for May 1805; but in the same month, 1804, was 58°. The wind has been chiefly in the East, but upon the whole the season is remarkably favourable to fructification. What are usually with gardeners termed bäghts a12 generally supposed to come from the East: the wind has, as usual, come much from that quarter this spring, but the blights have not been very frequent nor very fatal. In a garden at Hampstead we saw a few days ago two trees only materially affected with the flight, and what seems singular, is, that those were almost the only trees in the garden (which is of considerable extent) that seem completely shaded from the eastern aspect. THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 158.] JULY 1, 1807. [6 of VOL. 23. "As long as thofe who write are ambitious of making Converts, and of giving to their Opinions a Maximum of "Influence and Celebrity, the mott extensively circulated Miscellany will repay with the greatest Effect the * Curiofity of those who read either for Amusement or Inftruction." JOHNSON, ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. For the Monthly Magazine. Authentic PARTICULARS of the FALL of MOUNT RUFFI or RUFFIBERG, in SWITZERLAND, together with OBSERVATIONS on the CAUSES and CONSEQUENCES of that disastrous EVENT." EVERAL accounts of this awful caStastrophe have already appeared in this and other countries, but they are, for the most part, incomplete, many of them being exceedingly incorrect, and none of them containing any precise enquiries respecting the probable causes that produced it. To elucidate this important subject, M. Saussure examined on the spot with philosophical accuracy, every thing that could tend to the establishment of such facts as might give confidence to the inhabitants of mountainous countries, who, from deceitful appearances, might apprehend a similar misfortune; and that might excite others to retire from situations exposed to real and impending danger. The place in which this dreadful calamity happened, is in the canton of Schwitz, situated between the lakes of Zug and Lowertz, on two sides, and the mountains of Ruffiberg and Rosi on the others. Here, says a person writing on the spot, 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 for ever effaced from the earth, and an extended desolation, burying alive several hundred peasants, overspreads the valley of Lowertz. Early in the evening of the 2d of September, an immense projection of the mountain of Ruffiberg gave way, and was precipitated into this valley. In four minutes it completely overwhelmed This account is partly translated from an able Memoir presented by M. T. Saussure to the Philosophical Society at Geneva; partly from the narrative of M. J. H. Meyer, and partly from the published observations of other eye-witnesses. MONTHLY MAG. No. 158. three villages, and parts of two others. The torrent of earth and stones was more rapid than that of lava, and its effects as irresistible and terrible. The mountain in its tremendous descent carried trees, rocks, houses, every thing 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 was so great, that it not only spread over the hollow of the valley, but even ascended to a considerable height on the side of the opposite mountain. A portion of the falling mass rolled into the lake of Lowertz, and it has been calculated that a fifth part of it is filled up. On this lake are two small islands, celebrated for their picturesque beauty of these one is famous for the residence of two hermits, who were fortunately absent on a visit when this event took place; the other has been long known on account of the remains of an ancient castle, once belonging to the house of Hapsburg. So large was the body of water 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 northern extremity, were for a time completely overwhelmed by the swell. A large house was lifted from its foundations, and carried to a distance from the spot where it formerly stood. Mountains by the action of water, air, and frost, have universally a tendency to dissolution, and being reduced to their original particles, return to the bottom of the sea whence they probably arose; and where perhaps they are formed anew. This decomposition generally operates by such slow degrees as to escape obser vation; but on some occasions it announces itself by sudden separations which overwhelms a whole country, annihilating the inhabitants, and leaving nothing behind but the image of disorder and destruction. The almost spontaneous decompositions that have happened in different 9 U countries, countries, manifest that mountains which seem to announce an approaching fall, by a too great inclination of their layers, and by a want of unity in their parts, do not form flakes capable of lying waste on a sudden the neighbouring country, if they do not vary in their state of aggregation and 10 their composition. These undoubtedly produce calcareous dribblings, but their fall in general is successive and almost regular; we can daily observe the effects, and are able before-hand to shelter ourselves from them; thus the frequent decompositions which have happened in Mont Blanc, and the steep hill near it, have not been attended with any serious catastrophe to the inhabitants of that country. But if the composition of a mountain varies, if one or more hard and inclined layers succeed layers, which are tender and susceptible of being decomposed by water, the hard layers remain entire whilst that which is below wastes away. In consequence of this waste a space totally void, or filled with soft and incoherent matter, forms itself in the interior of the mountain. The upper layer being whole, but wanting a point of support, separates and sinks down at once in all points. It takes the place of the decomposed layer, and rolls to the foot of the mountain with a velocity proportionate to its degree of inclination, and to the motion acquired in the act of sinking. Such is nearly a sketch of the causes which produced the fall of the Diablerets, of Mount Chede near Servoz, and lastly of Mount Ruffi, or Ruffiberg. This mountain, which is also called Rossberg, or Rosenberg, contains several parishes and estates; but these divisions are arbitrary, and not determined by any natural cut or division; that the names of Gnippe, Spitzbuhl, Steinerberg, and Rossberg, which have been given, with certain relations to the drifted mountain, are only different pastures of Ruffiberg, through which the drifted sections have passed. Besides, this last name is adopted in preference to that of Ross berg, lest it should be taken for Rotzberg, a mountain of a very different appearance in the neighbourhood of Stantz. Ruthberg, according to M. Ebel, is elevated eight hundred and six toises above the sea,and five hundred and eightysix toises above the lake of Zug, or the lower part of the vale of Arth, into which this mountain is partly fallen. This vale, rich in pasture, is a league and a half in length, and a quarter of a league in breadth, at its western extremity towards Arth, a village situated on the border of the lake of Zug, and half a league at its opposite extremity towards rue lake of Lowertz. Ruffiberg is composed of layers of mixt, and layers of freestone, which descend towards the bottom of the valley of Arth, in a direction parallel to the slope of the mountain, and making an inclined augle of twenty-five degrees. The similarity that predominates in the composition and arrangement of Rigi and Ruffiberg, led MM. Ebel, and Escher, to suppose that these two mountains were formerly united; for they are both composed of stones, rounded by the action of water, and of sand united by a cement partly calcareous and partly argillaceous, which is very often of a red colour. This cement, which is pretty hard, becomes destroyed in time by the action of the air and of water, and the surface of the rock then has the appearance of a worn pavement. The pebbles of which it is formed, are chiefly of a yellowish green, and have rough and compact fracture of secondary calcareous stones, apparently without any petrifactions. Here are also found secondary petrosilex, quartz, red jasper, reddish free-stone, and lastly granite; but the last is scarce, always of a red colour, and might be easily mistaken for porphyry. 'It is remarkable that all these stones bear no relation to the stones of the neighbouring mountains which are calcareous, blue, and have lamellated or saline grain; and it is like wise singular that in bulk they never exceed seven or eight inches square. The revolution which has heaped into this place such an enormous quantity of pebbles, rolled probably from a distance, has been followed by a subsequent revo lution, which has brought upon these mixtures, and into the bottom of the vale, large blocks of granite, similar to those found on Jura and Saleve. Similar ones are to be met with on Mount Rigi, even at the height of two hundred toises above the lake of Lucerne, in ascending this mountain on the side of Weggis. Some are also to be seen on Ruffiberg, at the height of eighty toises between the village of St. Anne, and the hamlet of Buachen, near the lake of Loweriz. They are here so accumulated, as to exclude every other kind of stones, and it would be impossible not to think one's self on a soil purely granitic, were one not diverted from from this opinion by a general inspection of the country. These blocks are always detached. Their presence being solely limited to the lower parts of the mountain, their green or white colour, and their large size indicate that they never enter, and never have entered into the composition of the mixt layers. The separation and falling of Ruffiberg took place at five o'clock in the evening, It was the consequence of the ram which fell abundantly in this country throughout the summer, and parucularly during the four and twenty hours preceding the 2d of September. It had however ceased before twelve at noon; and at the moment of the catastrophe, it was quite clear. This event was not caused by the fall of the summit of the mountain on the inferior parts, but by an entire bed of layers, which, from the base, up to the summit of Ruffiberg, (being one hundred feet thick, one thousand feet wide, and nearly a league in length) was separated from the lower layers, and slid parallel to their planes, into the bottom of the valley, with a rapidity inconceivable for such trifling inclination. The peasant who conducted M. Saussure in his excursion on this mountain, had been an eye-witness to the spectacle. He resided in the direction of the drifted section at Ober-Rothen, a hamlet situated on the declivity of Ruffiberg; was en gaged in cutting some wood near his house, and within six or seven paces from the place where the drifted section passed. He heard on a sudden a noise like a thunder-storm, and at the same time felt under his feet a kind of trembling. He instantly quitted the place, but had scarce proceeded four or five paces, before he was thrown down by a current of air. He got up immediately, The devastation was begun, the tree which he had cut down, the house he had inhabited, every thing disappeared, and he saw, according to his own expression, a new creation. An immense cloud of dust that immediately succeeded, threw a veil over the whole country. Some accounts relate, that this catastrophe had been attended with flame and a sulphureous smell. But the most credible witnesses perceived nothing of the kind. Some colliers were burning charcoal on the road which the sliding section took; and it is possible that the sudden dispersion of their ignited heaps might have produced an appearance of flame. The generality of the inhabitants of the country affirm, that the falling did not continue three minutes, and that it was felt at the same time both at the top and foot of the mountain. Though this calamity was sudden and unexpected, it had been preceded several hours by certain indications, which it is of impor tance to record, as they may at a future time induce people to escape from danger; and because they are the consequences of causes that determined the rapidity with which the fallen part slid from its base. An inhabitant of Spitzbuhl, a farmer residing about two thirds of the way up the mountain, heard amidst the rocks about two o'clock a kind of cracking which he attributed to supernatural causes, and immediately ran down to Arth to procure a clergyman to come and quiet it. Almost at the same instant at Under Rothen, a little village at the foot of the mountain, Martin Weber, while striking his spade into the ground, to dig up some roots, saw the earth spirt up with a gentle explosion, and a kind of whizzing against his head. He left his work directly, and went to relate to his neighbours the phenomenon, for which they could not account. The shepherds, who still live in places intermediate to these two stations, assert that, from morning and throughout the day, the mountain emitted a noise even to the moment when the separation happened. This they affirm was accompanied with such an agitation, that at the villages of St. Anne and Arth, situated within twenty minutes' walk of the places laid waste, all the moveable goods in the houses staggered as if in a state of animation, Nothing, however, was either felt or heard at Schwitz, which is only a league and a half from the scene. The noise heard previously to the catastrophe, pro ceeded from the breaking of the layer which had been undermined; it did not begin to sink and slide until all its parts had been disunited M. Saussure ascended the summit of Rufiberg by its eastern side, passing through the village of St. Anne. The slope is always easy, and may be ascended on horseback. The ground on this part is covered with orchards, meadows, and fir-trees, thinly scattered; the rock which serves as a base to the vegetable earth is not perceptible, we only see here and there large blocks of mixt. stone, but these blocks have been a long time detached. They are found in a kind of little vallies, with which the mountain is SU 2 turrow ed |