Swiss Lae Region Made Reservation

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 37, 14 February 1939, Page 5

Swiss Lae Region Made Reservation

BERNE —The Marjelen Lake at the foot of the Great Aletsch glacier has : been set aside as a national reservation. The lake has somewhat the shape of a triangle and is 7,710 feet above sea level. The base of the triangle is barred by an ice wall, 183 feet long and 160 feet deep. Striking peculiarity of this lake is that it empties itself at irregular intervals, the same varying from three to seven years, and within the space of a few hours. The bulk of the receding water flows through the Aletsch glacier to the Massa Torrent, a tributary of the River Rhone. . In the days before telephones and telegraphs the peasant who first arrived in the Rhone Valley with the news that the lake had disappeared was given a new pair of shoes. Natural scientists are of the opinion that the Aletsch glacier itself is responsible for the lake’s actions. Little by little the melting ice raises the level of the lake until at the end of a few years the accumulated water exerts such an enormous pressure upon the sides and bottom, of the lake that the basin gradually becomes as porous as a. sponge. At some point or other the water begins to escape; then it flows more rapidly, until it pours through Ihe fis- ' sures on every side. “What arc you knitting, deal?” ; “I really don’t know, darling. I've ’ lost the instructions.”