Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1893-05-19
A TERRIBLE SNOW SLIDE.
FEARFUL LOSS OF ANIMAL LIFE.
DIXIE. IDAHO Co.. IDAHO.
tnril 2S 1893.

EDITOR IDAHO FREE PRESS =
A terrible snow-slide occurred
about five miles above here the 18th
of last March. The avalanche came
down a canyon on the south side
of Dixie creek. The canyon used
to be very thickly timbered but
now there is swath about 100
feet wide cut through the middle
from the top of the mountain to
the creek a distance of about two
miles. AS might be expected
there are millions Of tons of snow
piled up making a dam that backed
the water up for mile. The ter
rible force of the avalanche can be
imagined easier than described Its
force was such that after striking
the creek its own momentum car
ried it fully quarter of a mile up
the mountain on the other side.
The awful noise attracted the
attention of your correspondent,
and seeing the long ribbon-like
stripe down the mountain side, de-
termined to investigate. Imagine
my surprise when, after gazing on
the work of this monster, walking
around awe-stricken and terrorized
Mt the terrible scene before me, to
find the leg of large bull moose
sticking out of the snow and ice.
pulled and tugged at the frozen
extremity of one of the noblcst an
imals that range the mountains,
but being unable to dislodge the
entire carcase took out my hunt
ing knife and cut the leg off close
up to the body, and after trimming
it down SO that there was nothing
left but the round, l tied it on my
back and went home. l told sew
eral of the boys about the find l
made, and showed them the big
ham of moose venison as collateral
proof, which, by the way, tipped
the scales at 81 pounds; although
did not take more than one-half
the quarter.
Next day I, in company with
several others went out to the now
famous snow slide to get the bal
ance of the meat, but when we
came within sight of the place we
saw no less than 90 large mountain
lions walking around and grinning
most hideously at each other, but
few shots from our revolvers sent
them scampering away onto the
nearest hills to watch us from a
respectable distance.
Imagine our chagrin when we
came to the place where | left a
big fat moose the evening before to
find nothing but a few frozen bones.
These ravenOus creatures had de-
voured the last morsel, and left the
bones polished as slick as though
the moose had been dead a century.
While bemoaning our sad fate,
Sawtooth Sam called attention to a
hole in the hard snow and ice that
looked as though made by one OF
the mountain lions. Investigation
proved his sllrmise correct, for not
only was the hole made by the
lion, but he, directed by the keen
sense of smell for which these ami
mails are noted, had located anoth-
er moose buried deep in snow
Now we had the key to the whole
business, SO we went around and
dug in the snow every place we
saw any signs of the lions digging
or scratching, and in every ease
dug out moose until we had II
of these splendid animals on the
surface. Some of them were sc
badly mashed up that they were
no good in one case a large tree
had been driven through the body
of one, and in several eases part
maybe One-half of the animal, was
so badly crushed that the bones
flesh and hide was ground into a
pulp. These parts that were spoil
ed we left on the ground charged
with strychnine, from which we
reaped quite harvest in the shape
of SO mountain lion pelts, "a lynx
13 black wolves, 26 wolverines, Is
fishers, go pine martens and 8 gray
wolves. There was an immense
amount of smaller game, but We
didn't have time to dress the pelts
or they were not valuable enough
If it was the season for bear We
would have got over a hundred, as
the woods are fairly alive with
them in the fall of the year, wher
the berries are ripe.
But the question may be aske(
how them moose got in the way o
that snow slide. Well, the way
account for it is this: 1t is well
known fact that elk and moose
yard up every winter for their mu
tual protection from lions, lynx
ETC., which, next to man, are thei
most deadly enemies; also the,
help each other to break trails t,
feed. This being SO, this ban'
must have been yardcd-up right il
the canyon that the snow slid
passed through, and it probabl,
swept the last one of them to de
struction.