Litchfield enquirer., 1876-07-06
A LOCOMOTIVES RUN BEFORE AN
 AVALANCHE OF SNOW.

The San Francisco Chronicle says:-N
 was four years ago last winter, was
 coming down with train loaded with
 cattle. The weather had been bad for
 weeks and the snow lay deep, but was
 melting off fast in the warm weather
 that had lasted nearly a week. The ground was saturated, and noticed that things looked shaky on the mountain. was feeling my way along carefully, thinking the track might spring, as the
 bed was wet and sloppy, when, just as l got around the point of this ridge, I looked up and it seemed to me that the whole mountain above me had broken loose. For hundreds of feet wide the hillside was in motion and charging down on me. The slide started 100 yards above the track and was coming right down on me like lightning. Rocks, trees and snowdrifts plunged down the face of the mountain with a laundering roar and seemed bent on overwhelming us and burying us in the canyon thousands of feet below. was never su oloso to death before, although have had my share of perils on the road. For a mo- ment I was supplied, the danger was great and escape so hopeless, but only for moment. determined not to die without an effort, but clapped on all steam, while the brakes were thrown of at the same time. You can see for your- self that the grade is very heavy here, and can believe that we made fast time. The engine seemed to know her danger and to gather herself for an effort. She leaped quivering and Snorting down the grade in the maddest race ever saw. Down came the avalanche like lightning directly upon us, throwing up clouds of flying snow and splinters and rock, and away flew the old engine like thing of life and beauty, as she was, dragging the cars like the wind down the grade after her, abreast the slide. But it seemed doomed to be all in vain. The avalanche came faster every moment. It was almost upon us. The rocks began bound against the cars and over them, the train was hidden in cloud of snow. But we were flying through the air now; the wheels seemed never to touch the rails, and just as was giving up hope the engine rushed past that little point of land just back there where the. little ravine comes down. This turned the current of the slide, so to speak, little and this was our salvation. The engine rushed past the point just, as the slide reached the track. and big pine, up- rooted in the edge of the avalanche, fell across the next car to the last one and crushed it. The track was swept away like 8 cobweb in a gale, the couplings of the car broke, and the ears fell into the chasm left in the wake of the slide and were carried down to the river, q a thousand yards below. What there is left of them lies there yet. The jerk made the engine and train jump the track, but she kept on her feet and we got off with few bruises. That I ac- count one of the greatest dangersI ever. met in my twenty years of railroading. 4 Here's an argument in favor of cheese. Prof. Peck says that in this country. where cheese is least used, one physician to every 500 persons is required. In Switzerland and countries where it is most used, only one physician is needed for every 10000 persons.