ound again in the form of the thickest
snow-storm, or to be dispersed at will like glittering ice-crystals. At
times the wind sweeps up large tracts of the dry ice-dust, and pours
them down upon a deep-lying valley amid the mountains, or on to the
summit of the passes, obliterating in a few seconds the laboriously
excavated mountain road, at which a whole company of rutners have toiled
for days. All these appearances resemble the avalanches of other Alps,
but can not be regarded in the same light as the true snow-storm, the
tormenta or guxeten. This is incomparably more severe, and hundreds on
hundreds of lives have fallen sacrifices to its fury. These have mostly
been travelling strangers, who either did not distinguish the signs of
the coming storm, or, in proud reliance on their own power, refused to
listen to well-meant warnings, and continued their route. Almost every
year adds a large number of victims to the list of those who have fallen
a prey to the snow-storm.

History and the oral tradition of the mountains record many incidents of
accidents which have been occasioned by the fall of avalanches. During
the Bellinzona war, in 1478, as the confederates, with a force of 10,000
men, were crossing the St. Gothard, the men of Zuerich were preceding the
army as van-guard. They had just refreshed themselves with some wine,
and were marching up the wild gorge, shouting and singing, in spite of
the warnings of their guides. Then, in the heights above, an avalanche
was suddenly loosened, which rushed down upon the road, and in its
impetuous torrent buried sixty warriors far below in the Reuss, in full
sight of those following.

On the 12th of March, 1848, in the so-called Planggen, above the tent of
shelter at the Maetelli, thirteen men who were conveying the post were
thrown by a violent avalanche into the bed of the Reuss, with their
horses and sledges. Three men, fathers of families, and nine horses were
killed; the others were saved by hastily summoned help. But one of their
deliverers, Joseph Mueller, of Hospenthal, met a hero's death while
engaged in the rescue. He had hastened to help his neighbors, but in the
district called the "Harness" he and two others were overwhelmed by a
second violent avalanche, and lost their lives. In the same year the
post going up the mountain from Airola was overtaken by an avalanche
near the house of shelter at Ponte Tremola. A traveller from Bergamo was
killed; the rest escaped.