Morning journal and courier., 1883-03-20
Riding an Avalanche.

How Uncle Alex at the Age of Seventy
 six Came to See HIS Friends in Deer
 Lodge.
 l [From the Deer Lodge tMontanal New Northwest.
 Everybody knows, or is the worse of for not knowing, Uncle Alex Hyland He came
 over here from Boise in 1866 and got good
 claim on Elk Greek, where he has lived since, save when he comes up to Deer Lodge occa sionally to spend a week or two with his friends. We don't want to say anything 1 even cordial of Uncle Alex. He don't like it; but when he says the last ''good bye' to the boys there will be more sad hearts than l there have been for many day in western
 Montana. He is seventy six years old, hale, hearty and vigorous for his years, and every day through the season does his days work
 in the placers alongside such stalwarts as
 James Hartford and James Fleming, and never misses 8 lick or meal. And he don't | let the long winters debilitate him either. | few days ago John Gerber wrote to him of his intended departure for California about 1 this time, and in the due course of uncertain I mails the letter was placed in Uncle Alex 5 | hands It had been raining two days on | Elk; the four or five feet of snow that cov- CTS the mountains and gulches in the vicinity | was soft and honeycombed, and the streams were running a freshet. But Uncle Alex | concluded to come to Deer Lodge to see Ger Der. The first eight miles to Bear crossing  I shoes and the next niRe to the stage station | on foot but Wednesday morning of last week he strapped on his eleven-feet Norwe- gian snow-shees and started over, by way of Deep Gulch. The ascent from Elk was tedi-
 ous and laborious. It is long trudge up the
 mountains to the top of the ridge, thou
 sand feet above Beartown and six thousand
 above the sea-especially to man seventy
 six years old. The summit was reached at
 last and he was congratulating himself on an
 easy run down to Beartown, when the snow
 sunk in the trail and down he went. Anoth-
 CT trial and the same result. The rains had
 honeycombed and undermined the snow. A
 little distance on the whole body of snow
 had slid away and plunged down the precipi-
 tous canon side into the bed of Deep Guloh.
 This would never do for snow-shoeing. The only recourse was to ascend the canon side to the dividing ridge between Elk and Deep and follow along on the edge of the summit. He mafied his shoes with rope brought for the purpose, and the climb was made, good footing secured, and all looked clear ahead. Uncle Alex then thought it was about time for smoke. He halted filled his pipe, lit it, took North American whif or two, and was just striking out when-wh e-w-w-zip away went the entire body of snow with wild whirl, and in moment he was riding an avalanche two hundred feet wide with lightning speed, headlong down the precipice toward the waters of the creek nearly four hundred feet below. Fortunately, he was whirled head on,'' and was within a few feet of the top of the slide when it started. He struck with his alpenstock, braced him. self in the shoes he could not disengage from his feet, and flew through space with the aceeleration of speed produced by both the declivity and snow-slide. Before he could say 'Erin go Bragh" the slide had car ried him into and across the gulch, crushed his snow-shoes, and swamped the snow up | around him until only enough of him was | left free and unfettered to have whipped Gerber had he been in sight. But he wasn't nor any other living thing-and the wind singing plaintiff monody in the neishbor- ing pines alone broke the stiffness that suc- ceeded the roar of the avalanche. He looked back to see if any more snow was coming The canon side lay bare and scared to the summit with the boulders and stumps hold ing white fragments of their recent shroud. He had ridden the crest of the slide and was safe. He was about to rest spell before ex- tricating himself, when suddenly his feet grew cold. The chill crept up his ankles and was feeling for his knees before he realized the situation. The snow-slide had damned the waters of Deep Gulch They were com ing up after him. Something was necessary to be done without unnecessary delay. Some willows and brush projected near. He reached over and caught them and was speed fly free. He concluded to leave the vicinity and was soon after picking his way down the gulch, arriving at BeartoWn at D. m. without 8 bruise or broken bone. And that's the way Uncle Alex came up from Elk Creek. Many and many a sturdy man las been lost in snow-siides that were small compared to this, but they were under and 1e was on top. When asked if he would re- urn that way he said: ''No, I think I will 90 over by Henry Grants cabin. The su- oervisor seems to have neglected his work his winter on the Deep Gulch trail" He caves for home to-day.