The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1875-02-18

my companion, as, in the midst of q
heavy sleet, we assembled the canyon
where we had been assisting in exhum.
ing the corpse of a victim, at the scene
of late disaster. DO you not hear
it?" and shriIl whistling sound which
attracted my attention, deepened into o
low, gutteral-like roar, increasing in vol
ume and power at every instant, until
the artillery Of Stone River seemed but
whisper in comparison.
Where is it? hurriedly asked,
while the air at that distance seemed to
tremb in consonance with the motions
Of monster still invisible.
From the bed of Little Cottonwood a
smoothe incline rises at an angle Of
twenty degrees from the horizontal, ter
minating in perpendicular somber wall
| 900 feet in height, which is again sur
mounted by receding quartzlte cliffs,
through which two narrow gorges cut
their way, diverging in different direc-
tons, and, making a scallop in the hor-
rizon, are lost to view.
i Amidst the blood curdling uproar the
phenomena were invisible till the gorges
at the summit filed the level with the
moving snow. Rocks, as if in rage at
their inability TO Withstand the shock,
gave way from their foundations with an
audible growl. Clumps of trees, cen
turtles in maturing, snapped like stubble,
their dark branches describing the I'M
dulations of the surface as though
struggle for existence was theirs until
Ovcrtaken by some more powerful wave
of the avalanche. They sink gradually
and disappear jutting crags of quartzite
shake off their disconnected portions
which tumbling down their Jagged sides,
bury themselves noiselessly in the NOV
IN, masses, that, having united at the
converging point, rush toward the edge
Of the abyss with increased fury. Moth
ing moro terrible than the successive
plunges of the disconnected portions Of
the avalanche over the preciplce can well
be conceived. Compressed by contact
with obstacles in its course, the van of
the volume has attained the solidity of
ice. Retarded by variations of the in
cline, it seems to pause on the etse of
the precipice as though in sensitive dread
of the terrible shock which awaited it.
Impelled by the tremendous pressure be-
hind, it jutJ over the gulf unsupported a
distance of fifty feet until severed by its
own tremendous weight, it strikes the
earth with crash, only neutralized by
the uproar above it. With dullcr thud
and an irregular roar tor an echo each
separate descending boiy alighted On
its predecessor, piling higher and higher
at each successive descent, as though
for the grandest tabeau of
the sublime spectacle. Higher and high
err until assuming the proportions of
majestic column, it conccals the bluff
behind it half the distance to the top.
viii it fall?" asked my companion,
as transtixed by the phenomena he utters
the first words that have escaped him.
Yes, it must fall. See, it is swaying
already" Great God what scene
Colossal in Its magnitude, yet symetrcal
in proportion TO the scenery in relief
superb to the vision, indescribable in it's
destruction. A swaying motion, grace.
III sweep, boom indispensable In pow
II, the crags and canyons no mute au-
ltors Of the performance. In tones of
hunder they hurl back their applause.
Salt Lake Herald.