The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-02-18
Vivid Description Of an Avalanche.

Gazette.
Vivid Description Of an Avalanche.
A miner Of Little COttonwood, who
saw the descent of one of the recent
snow slides in that canyon, thus de-
seribes it:
There goes a snowslide = exclaimed
my companion, as. IN the midst of a
heavy sIeet, We assembled the canon
where We had been assisting in ex-
huming the corpse Of a victim, at the
scene of late disaster. Do you not
hear it ?" and shrill whistling sound
which attracted my attention, deepened
into low, gutteral-like roar, increasing
in volume and power at every instant,
until the artillery of Stone river seemed
but whisper in comparison.
Where is is?p 1 hurriedIy asked,
while the air at that distance seemed to
tremble in eonsonanee with the motions
of monster still invisible.
From the bed of Little Cottonwood a
smooth incline rises at an angle of
twenty degrees from the horizontal,
terminating in a perpendicular somber
wall !, 600 feet In height. which is again
surmounted by receding quartzite cliffs,
through which two narrow gorges cut
their ways, divergiDg in different direc-
tions, and making sealIop in the hori-
zon are lost to view.
Amidst the blood-curd1ing 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. CIumps OF
trees, centuries in maturing, snapped
like stubble, their dark branches de-
scribing the undulations of the surface
as though a struggle for existence was
theirs until overtaken by some more
powerful wave of the avalanche. They
sink gradually and disappear jutting
crags of quartzite shake off their dis
connected portions, which, tumbling
down their jagged sides, bury them
selves noiselessly in the moving masses,
that having united at the convergiDg
point, rush toward the edge of the
abyss with increased fury. Nothing
more terrible than the successive
plunges of the disconnected portions
of the avalanche over the precipics can
well be conceived. Compressed by con-
tact with obstacles in its course, the
van of the volume has attained the sol
idity Of ice. Retarded by variations of
the incline, it seems to pause on the
edge Of the precipice as though in sen.
sitive dread of the terrific shock which
awaited it. ImpeIled by the tremen-
dous pressure behind, it iuts over the
gulf unsupported a distance of fifty
feet until severed by its own tremen-
dous weight, it strikes the earth with a
crash, only Deutralized by the uproar
above it. With dulIer thud and On
irregular roar for an echo each separate
descending body ahghted on its prede-
cessor, piiing higher aid higher at each
successive descent, as though preparing
for the grandest tableau OF the sublime
spectacle. Higher and higher, until
assuming the proportions of majestic
column, it conceals the bluff behind it
half distant to the top.
Win it fall /" asked my companion,
as trnnsfixed by the phenomena he ut
tiers the first words that have escaped
him.
"Yes, it must fall. See, it is waving
already" Great God, what a scene /
Colossal in its magnitude, yet SYM
metricaI in proportion to the scenery
in relief: superb to the vision, indie.
scribable in its destruction. A sway
ing motion, graceful sweep, boom
indispensable in power, the crags and
canons no mute auditors of the per
Torrance. In tones OF thunder they
hurl back their applause. -,SaH Lake
Herald