Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-02-25
An Avalanche.

FROM the Salt Lak0 Herald.
From time immemorlal poets have
written and bards have sung in lauda-
tion of the beauties of the neecy ele-
ment which envelops our surrounding
mountains in a shroud of spotless white,
but not word of the power Of destrue-
ton which ever lies hidden in the midst
of its glisteuing fakes, and many per-
sons who live in this iald Of ayalanches,
vaterspouts, cloudbursts, earthquakes
and other commissions and freaks of ma
ture. have neuer had the privilege of be-
holding the beautiful snow " in any
other than a quiescent state, Thinking
that a pencil sketch of one Of those ava
lanches, more commonly known as a
snow slide, would be interesting to your
numerous readers, less favored than my
self, is my excuse for the present intru-
sion
The most destructive OF these slides,
of which there are several varieties, are
caused by the action Of the warm south
winds upon the vast fields of snow lying
upon the steep sides Of the mountain
and the first intimation which the voy-
aver receives of the impending catastro
PHI is low, but to the ear Of the expe-
rie1ced mountaineer, ominous sound
ike a conclusion in the air, caused by
the sudden sinking and breaking away Of
a large field of snow on SEINE of the dis
tant mountain crests, Immediately fol-
lowed by prolonged muttering sound
like distant thunder. The reports or
successive peals become palmer as the
mass gains in speed, and is accompanied
by crushing, grinding noise, like moth.
ing else on earth but the combined
sound of the beating of the angry waves
Of the ocean on a rock coast, with the
steam escaping from hundred engines;
and the slide rushes into view like the
very incarnation Of destruction, grind
ing rocks into powder, and uprooting aud
rending whole forests OF trees which may
happen to stand in its course. Nothing
meets the eye Of the astonished panic.
stricken spectator but wave on wave
Of snow, ice, fragments of rocks and
huge trunks Of trees, rolling, tum-
bling, tossing in wild, iuextricable con
fusion, The mass rushes with ire.
sistible force down the steep, inclined
plane Of the mountain side, bearing
destruction to everything in its path,
leaving desolation and barren rocks in
its path until at last with one loud, wild
burst of thunder sound, il pluUges into
the bed of the canon, ana, as if angry
at the obstacle which impedes its head
long course, it frequently runs hundreds
of feet up the sides Of the opposite noun
tain. To a person who is on the oppO.
site side Of the canon, and considers
himself as safe as if be were in Abra
ham s bosom, the scene is megniGcently
grand and awe inspiring, but to the hap
less miner or ore hauler, who is in close
proximity to the path OF the avalanche,
it is an object of terror.
A person who reads an account in the
daily journals of the occurrence of
snow slide in one of the Cottonwoods,
and the finding of several of the bodies
of the victims--buried six, ten or thirty
feet deep in the snow and debris-but
who has never looked with his own eyes
upon one of these verita.besoms Of de.
struction, can have no conception Of the
nightmare of fear which oppresses the
heart Of the poor miner who, as he crawls
slowly along the side OF a precipitous
mountain, behold in the distance above
him huge mass of snow and ice fall
from the summit of a cliff, or experience
the throb of terror which his heart gives
when he feels the snow beneath his feet
suddenly sink aud commence to move
down the mountain.