TORRENTS AND AVALANCHES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1241, 25 September 1911, Page 5

TORRENTS AND AVALANCHES.

HOUSES BATTERED BY BOULDERS. GREAT DAMAGE AT NAPLES. Rome, September 23. Tho hurricane has lasted for 24 hours and still continues, but fuller details are lacking owing to the interruption of communications. Hugo deposits of volcanic ashes on tho slopes of Vesuvius havo been washed into tho raping torrents, and despifco tho vast concroto constructions tho mud avalanches began their devastating descent. They havo submerged cultivated fields, uprooted trees, and deluged tho low-lying villages, particularly Torro del Greco, whero the torrent reached the second Doors of tho houses, and washod away the. railway line. Other villages have been buried in tho slough, which was seven feet wide, and which spread during the darkness. Scores of houses collapsed, and in many cases the terrified inhabitants were unablo to escape'before'their cottages were engulfed or battered by giant boulders carried from the mountain sides, together with trees, and the carcasses of , animals. Twenty of (he corpses recovered belong to two families. Hundreds of villages aro still cut off and arc in danger of perishing. Naples has sent soldiers and firemen as rescue parties, but it is difficult to reuch the centre of the disaster. Great damage has been dono by floods at Naples, and trains havo been stopped. A cloud-burst also took plnco at 'Volterra and Ltghorn.

fT.Pchorn. tli« capital of a province, with 75.300 inhabif.int.% nnd' one of tho chief seaports in Itnly, owes iu i«'~ii.'.™« <■~ the Mnlici, who in • tho sixteenth and seventeenth cntnrips n"<"<"" , <"' nn -..—'.,■■. to T?m«an Catholics from England, Jews, and Hfoors from Smin, nnd refugees from other countries also. The town is intorpccted bv canals, nnd is connected by a cnnnl with the Arno, which fnll* ititn'vW SP.n flj miles to f>o ro-H. T* r*«-••.-<. *■■ a flniirishing trndo with the Levant and tho Rlnrlc R<?a, and. builds armoured ships for the Italian Navy. The tramway from Hip station pnsse-s through tho Via Palostro and Vi.i Garibaldi, and crosses l>f VinwA Gnribaldi (with a monument to the pa't-riot) to the Viavzs. Carlo AlWto. with the sbhins of Ferdinand TIT (died 1824) and T-copnld IT /died 18?n), the two last trrand-dultc? of Tuscany. Tn tho Pinzza Vittorio F.manuole are a siofiio of Victor prnmnnue.l IT., the Cathedra!, the Ifunicinio, and tho old Palnzzn. Tlio toirn also has a status, of Grand-Duke Ferdinand I (died ICD9).] FLOODS IN ROME. TEE FAILURE OF A MIBACLE. Rome, September 23. Many workmen at Home were in danger of drowning owing to the sudden flooding of tho bawmont. Water is running three or four feet deep in the streets. Tho disaster is generally attributed by the peoplo to the failure of tho miraclo of the blood of Saint Januarius, [Saint Januarius is said to havo been a Bishop of Benevento, who, with ot'hers, was arrested by the Governor of Campania and placed in a fiery furnace, but canio out unharmed. Ho was then thrown to tho beasts in the amphitheatre of Nola, but the beasts, it is stated, would not touch him, and he was beheaded about 305 a.n. at Puzzuoli, where churches were built in his honour. The head of Saint Januarius and two glass phials of his blood aro kept in the great church at Naples, and on tho head beirg brought near the phials the congealed blood bubbles and liquefies. This is the miraclo which, the cablegram states, did not. occur this year. One. of tho entrances to the cathedral at Naples has a column in front of it recalling tho aid rendered by Saint Januarius during tho eruption of Vesuvius in 1631.]