even in the summer. The valleys between these mountains are inhabited by
a brave and industrious people; the sides of them, too, are cultivated,
but the tops of the highest mountains are so extremely cold that the ice
and snow never melt, but go on continually increasing. During a great
part of the winter the weather is extremely cold, and the inhabitants
confine themselves within their houses, which they have the art to
render very comfortable. Almost all the roads are then impassable, and
snow and ice afford the only prospect. But when the year begins to grow
warmer, the snow is frequently thawed upon the sides of the mountains,
and undermined by the torrents of water, which pour down with
irresistible fury. Hence it frequently happens that such prodigious
masses of snow fall down as are sufficient to bury beasts and houses,
and even villages themselves, beneath them.

"It was in the neighbourhood of these prodigious mountains, which are
called the _Alps_, that, on the 19th of March 1755, a small cluster of
houses was entirely overwhelmed by two vast bodies of snow that tumbled
down upon them from a greater height. All the inhabitants were then
within doors, except one Joseph Rochia, and his son, a lad of fifteen,
who were on the roof of their house clearing away the snow, which had
fallen for three days incessantly. A priest going by to church advised
them to come down, having just before observed a body of snow tumbling
from the mountain towards them. The man descended with great
precipitation, and fled with his son he knew not whither; but scarcely
had he gone thirty or forty steps before his son, who followed him, fell
down; on which, looking back, he saw his own and his neighbours' houses,
in which were twenty-two persons in all, covered with a high mountain of
snow. He lifted up his son, and reflecting that his wife, his sister,
two children, and all his effects, were thus buried, he fainted away;
but, soon reviving, got safe to a friend's house at some distance.

"Five days after, Joseph, being perfectly recovered, got upon the snow,
with his son and two of his wife's brothers, to try if he could find the
exact place where his house stood; but, after many openings made in the
snow, they could not discover it. The month of April proving hot, and
the snow beginning to soften, he again used his utmost endeavours to
recover his effects, and to bury, as he thought, the remains of his
family. He made new openings, an