Bernard, and has destroyed the left wing of the building,
though happily without costing any lives.
[Illustration: The St. Bernard at home.]
The Great St. Bernard is a mountain pass in the Swiss Alps, and the
monastery was built in the year 963 by a nobleman named Bernard de
Menthon, for the use of pilgrims on their way to Rome.
As the years have passed away, the pilgrims have become tourists, but
still the monastery's doors have been open for all who asked for shelter
there. There is sleeping accommodation for one hundred people, but in bad
weather as many as six hundred guests have been sheltered at one time.
Snow avalanches like the one which has destroyed the wing of the monastery
are of frequent occurrence there. An avalanche is a mass of snow, which,
getting loosened from the mountain heights, falls down to the valley,
often bearing masses of rock and earth with it. As it sweeps down the
mountain side it carries all before it, and when it is finally checked in
its course, it smothers everything around in its mantle of white.
It has always been a part of the monks' duties, after one of these
dreadful avalanches has passed over, to go out into the mountains and
search for travellers who may have been buried by it.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41