THE LANDSLIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1930, Page 5

THE LANDSLIDE

MORE RESCUES

[United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copy rigb t. j

LONDON, November 14

A Lyons message states that seven bodies, including that of a baby, have been recovered from the ruins.

One woman and a baby have died at the hospital.

A tottering building, which threatened three hundred workers, has been dynamited, but one wing of the Ohazeaux Hospital the walls of which are badly cracked, is still balanced precariously on the edge of the chasm.

There is a torrent of water pouring out from a gap in the hillside. This doubled the difficulties of removing the debris until a temporary pipe line diverted tlie flow.

Enormous works must be constructed to hold up the remainder of the hill, the top of which is crowned with historic edifices.

DEATH ROLL 37

(Received this day at 8 a.m.)

The Lyons landslide death roll is thirty-seven. Three thousand soldiers and firemen are clearing the debris, which is expected to take a fortnight. THE LYONS DISASTER. The City of Lyons, which has just been the scene of a terrible disaster, lies at the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone and it is built along the banks of both rivers and on the peninsula between them. The hill of Foi(P'viere, the locality ot the disaster is one of the abrupt heights on the right band df the Saone, which Sweeps round the hill in a semicircle. Between the full and the river there is room: only for the quays and a narrow street or two. On the hill itself are convents, hospitals and seminaries and above them rises a famous church, Notre Dame de Fourviere, a modern basilica built on the site of a very ancient church. At the foot of the hill is the cathedral of St. Jean, commenced in the twelfth century and completed in 1480.

Lyons itself is a very ancient city. The Romans built on the bills overlooking the Saone, and there are still remains of their public works. It was to peculiarly suitable site for a military base, and Agrippa made it the starting point of liis military roads into the various districts of Gaul. It lies on the

natural highway between north and south. Tlie importance of the base in Roman times is shown hv the remains of three great aqueducts on the Fourviere level. There is a doubt whether Fourviere or the peninsula was the site of the earliest camp, hut as the hill is believed ot take its name from “forum vetus,” or tlie ancient forum, tlie presumption is that it is the original settlement.