Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-02-26
THE TRACK OF AN AVALANCHE.

We had gone out from Fort Owen
to open the pass in the Big Hole
choppers to get a supply of wood for
the post. 1t had showed for seventy
hours without break, and at several
points in the pass there were drifts
twenty feet high. There were twenty
five of US, under command of lieu
tenant, and about noon we had dug
our way half through the pass. The
mountain slopes on each side were
rough and rocky, but the snow lay SO
deep that each slope looked as level
as the floor, though the slant was
much sharper than the ordinary house
roof. 1t was good thousand feet to
the cedars growing on the ridge, and
it made one dizzy to look up and
realize the distance.
eve are liable to meet with dis
aster here,' the officer had said as we
began work with our snow shovels in
the morning. sThere must be no
play-no shouting. If the snow gets
started up there, not man of us will
ever be found before next June"
The pass ran east and west for a.
distance of two hundred feet, and
then made sharp turn to the north.
At the turn we had what might be
called a third mountain in front of us.
The slope was as high as the others
and pitched to the west or down the
pass We thus had three slopes, two
pitching across the pass and the
other lengthwise of it. For the first
hour every man was nervous and
afraid. Then the feeling began to
wear off, and some of the men ex
pressed their contempt Of the peril.
At the end of two hours the officer had
to repeat his words of caution. At
about II o'clock fall Of snow from
the left-hand slope revealed the
mouth of cave about thirty feet
above our heads. 1t was believed by
all to be the lair of bear or panther,
and at noon, when the men sat down in
the pass to eat their pork and hard
tack, the officer started to go up and
investigate. Without a word on his
part I followed him. The fall of snow
had left the rocks bare and revealed
three or four small trees, but it was a
hard climb to reach the cave. It
wasn't cave at all, but only an in
dentation in cliff, with shelf Of
rock overhanging it. This overhang
extended out for perhaps four feet.
The men were not all in bunch,
but some of them were even out of
sight around the bend. After discov-
ering that we had been duped about
the cave we stood looking down and
across, and were just moving to get
down, when one of the men below US
shouted:
GA deer! A deer! Hurrah, boys
venison for superb
The deer was above us, but we could
not set it on account Of the overhang.
All the men had their revolvers. and
as they began to flourish them and
prepare to fire the officer called out
command and a warning. If they
heard him, they did not heed him. He
was still speaking when three or four
shots were fired simultaneously, and
some cried out that the deer had been
hit. 1t was the conclusion that start
ed from the very top of the slope,
where the warm sun had softened it
soonest. I felt a trembling of the
mountain and leaped back under the
| overhang, and as the lieutenant and I
stood side by SIDE, the avalanche swept
over US. Daylight was blotted out in
an instant, and the grinding, roaring
and crashing were something terrific.
1t seemed as if the mountain rocked
and pitched like steamer at sea, and
the noise was louder than any clap of
thunder you ever heard. 1t couldn't
have lasted over sixty seconds, though
the time seemed ten times as long.