The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-11-11
GUARDING AGAINST sNoWeLIpES.
Miles of Cedar Tunnels Built Along the
Selkirk Mountain Sides.

Miles of Cedar Tunnels Built Along ths
SeIkirk Mountain Sides.
! The Canadian Pacific railroad has spent
over 81, ,000, 600 in the protection of its line
| against snewslides. The greatest danger
! of delays from this source is found among
/ the Selkirk mountains, through which the
railroad runs for scores of miles, with
mountains on sither side towering thou
sands of feet above the track. 1t is now
known where the dangers of snowslides
are likely to occur, and such ample provi-
SIGN has been made that trains are not at
all delayed.
There are miles of sheds, or, more prop
erly, tunnels made of massive timbers.
These sheds are built of heavy, squared
cedar logs, dovetailed and bolted together,
backed with rock and fitted into the noun
tain side in such manner as to bid def
auce 60 the most terrific avalanche. Some
times the snow slips down the mountain
sides in enormous quantities and shoots
right over The top of these sheds, lodging
further down the valley At some places,
where the view is particularly fine, track
has been built outside the sheds for sum-
mer use, SO that tourists during this sea-
son need not lose the grandeur of the
scenery while passing through these long
cedar tunnels.
1t is very interesting also to observe here
and there the bulwarks that have been
built on the mountains for the purpose of
diverting the course of a snow avalanche,
which would otherwise reach the track.
These bulwarks are also massive eonstruc-
tions of solid timber, with fiat, smooth
top, slanted IN one direction or another,
and having the effect when snow
slide strikes it to turn it aside, probably
down an adjacent valley. Otherwise it
would precipitate itself upon the track.
The railroad has never been embarrassed
by serious landslides, although some years
ago there was all enormous slide which
nearly damned the Thompson river for
forty-eight hours. Trackwalkers always
GO over the route after every train passes
to see that all is right for the next train.
In addition to the snowsheds and the bull
warks built on the Selkirk mountain sides,
the bridges in that region are Of peculiar
interest.
The principal difficulty in building this
part Of the line was occasoDed by the tor
rents pouring for thousands of feet down
the mountain sides, which add a wonder
lul CuHTh 20 bue lduuSCdpt, DuG were d
hard nut for the railroad engineers to
crack. There is a cascade near Glazier
House which for long time deied all the
the efforts Of the engineers to control it.
When the en- ngIneers tried to coax it in one
direction it o6s5inately persisted in going
in another. This cascade is in harness
now and is behaving itself very well.
A number of thsse cascades necessitated
the building of bridges very high above the
gorge below, and a magnificent sight is al
ways TO be seen from the observation car
as a train is crossing a bridge, for the
great gorge through which the cascade
flows is always grand and impressive. The
bridge aCFess Stony creek is one of the
loftiest bridges in the world. AS the train
glides swiftly over it the passengers are
almost exactly 800 feet above the noisy tor
rent that dashes along in its narrow chan
mel. The bridging of these Selkirk cas-
cades cost the railroad company many
hundreds of thousands of dollars.-Chicago
Tribune.