FEARFUL AND FATAL ACCIDENT TO IRISH LADIES IN SWITZERLAND.

West Coast Times, Issue 316, 27 September 1866, Page 1 (Supplement)

FEARFUL AND FATAL ACCIDENT TO IRISH LADIES IN SWITZERLAND.

~A correspondent of the " Home News" supplies the following particulars of an accident to travellers in Switzerland : —

Three ladies- have lost their lives in Switzerland on the road between Ragatz and the baths of Pfeffers. This road is about two miles in lengjb, and follows the course of the Tamina river through one of the grandest and most remarkable gorges in Switzerland. It rises from fifteen to thirty-five feet above the bed of the river", wjiich it overhangs, and is in most places unprotected by wall or barrier. The Tamina is a wildly rushing turbulent river, varying from three to five feet in depth. On the 3rd of July three ladies, unaccom- i panied by a' gentleman, arrived at Ragatz jby train about 2 p.m. They were— Mrs Delffs, wife of Delffs, of Heidelberg "University ; Miss Hollywood, of Bath Lodge, Ba'llycastle, Ireland; and her niece, -Miss Walker, of the same place. They went at once to the Hotel .Ragatz, where they dined, and then ordered a carriage to take them to the baths of Pfeffers. This was a one-horse vehicle provided by the proprietor of the hotel and driven by a man called Mogg, who is said to have had several years' experience as driver on the road. They reached the baths in safety; were shown all the curiosities of 'the place, and started on the return journey a little v before six o'clock. They lfed got about a quarter of a mile on their way back when their pleasure trip came to its fatal termination. They were going at a trot down an incline where the joad is quite unprotected on tlie mver side, when the horse Cthough an^pld one), seeming to have taken fright unaccountably at something, made-a sadden turn towards the-., precipice: The driver half leaped and half was thrown from the bo^ on the road, and wbWhe recovered himself he was horrified to find that the horse, carriage, and its "occupants had been precipitated - into the Tamina, a fall of thirty feet. The river was swollen at the time to a depth of four or 1 five feet, and flowed so rapidly that at this spot the' strongest man could scarcely keep his legs, so the unfortunate ladies were carried off in its resistless current and were never afterwards seen alive. Ttiere were few witnesses of the melancholy occurrence-. A carriage, in which sat one English lady , followed at a distance of about fifty yard/ The coachman i of this seems (like tho driver of ttye unfortunate ladies)" to have been so overcome by terror as to be unable to render any assistance. Indeed, he . sa3's he did not see the ladies after tne fall, but only heard their cries. He drove forward to Ragatz for help, which came, but too late. Miss r Hollywooa's body was first recovered, three-quarters df an hour > after the accident, 300 yards below the spot, but she was de^ad. Mrs Delffs was f6und two days afterwards. Mrs Delffs and Miss Hollywood were buried side, by , side in Ragatz, on Saturday, the 7tt of July. The 'crowd around .the graves seemed moved by feelings deeper than mere curiosity, and the resident magistrate and the inhabitants of Ragatz generally have shown every consideration and sympathy in their efforts to recover the bodies and attentions to the relatives of the deceased, who have since arrived. Miss Walker's corpse was not found until the 11th, when some children discovered it in the Rhone at Trubbach, and it was buried at Ragatz on the 13th, according to the , rites of the English Church, Dr. Heidenheim, English chaplain at Zurich, officiating.