A MOVING MOUNTAIN

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14775, 14 October 1921, Page 7

A MOVING MOUNTAIN

GIGANTIC AVALANCHES. DESTRUCTIVE ROCK TORRENT. The extraordinary movement of the Sandling the mountain 5600 ft, high in the romantic Slazkammcrgut district of Upper Austria, which was first reported last November, is now becoming troublesome and dangerous. Almost daily, stales a telegram from Gratz to the Berlin Tageblalt, gigantic •avalanches of rock crash from the summit down the pastures and the lower slopes, gravely endangering the safety of the peasants and their cattle. Under (he western side of the mountain the stratum of marl has collapsed. As a result the peak bus lost its support, and the fall of all (he adjacent I as lures, woods, and screes of boulders, and of the huge mountain crest which towers above I hem with ils ridges, crags and pinnacles, is now inevitable. The pressure of this immense mass of rock on tin; ground at flic foot of (tic lofty precipices is forcing out the accumulation of rock, earth, and clay which forms the ini crier of Ihe mountain, so that Ibis solid mailer is being driven like a river in florid down into I lie valleys, where it is sweeping a wide belt of Uestruct'ion. The ridges and pinnacles which used to rise under the greal wesJC'U wall of the handling have some of them disappeared completely; oilier* have sunk some 1 Mifl. into Die ground; ami others arc Iremlding ai precipitous angles. The mass of carlii. rock, and clay, driven out (if the mountain, has now advanced three miles and engulfed a large (race of forest.