Page:Awful phenomena of nature -- snow storms, third of March and twenty-third April, 1827.pdf/12

 itself over the neighbourhood; and all the friends and relations of the sufferers, with many others, to the amount of three hundred, flocked of their own accord from the adjacent villages, to give their assistance on this melancholy occasion.

Joseph Roccia, notwithstanding his great love for his wife and family, and desire to recover part of what he had lost, was in no condition to assist them for five days. In the meantime the rest were trying, by driving iron rods through the hardened snow, if they could discover any roofs: but they tried in vain: the great solidity and compactness of the valanca, the vast extent of it in length, breadth, and height, together with the snow that still continued to fall in great quantities, eluded all their efforts: so that, after some day’s labour, they were obliged to desist untill the valley should assume its pristine form, by the melting of the snow and ice, from the setting in of the warm winds, which continued to blow from the end of March till about April 20th

On the 18th of that month they began to resume their interrupted labours. All the persons that were missing, were found dead except those of Joseph Roccia’s family. Assisted by the two brothers-in-law, and son, he at length penetrated to his house, but found no dead bodies in it.

Knowing that the stable did not lie 100 feet from the house, they immediately directed their search towards it, and having got a long pole