The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1895-10-23
The AWFUL AVALANCHE.
IT'S FIERCE RUSH BEST SEEN IN
BRITISH COLUMBIA.
With . Kissing, Rushing Sound Rocks
Are Ground TO Powder, Trees Are
Uprooted andLogs are Smashed
tn Splinters.

Uprooted andLoGs are Smashed
to splinters.
From the Victoria (B. c. Colonist.
Imagine, If you can, the very toughest
bit Of nature ever seen, or take a newspa-
per, crumple it into a ball. and placing
it on table suppose all its raised parts
to be peaks and the hollow rayines; pict-
ure the sharp edges as ridges more or
less timbered, the hollows bare, smooth,
or steep as the roof of the steepest house
you know of, and you have an idea of the
mountains and gorges of the Slopes.
Let US suppose we are standing near
the summit OF one of the ridges on
bright sunny day in January. 1t has
boon showing continuously for days. and
the beautiful lies in plenteous profus-
ion everywhere, six to eight feet deep in
the timbered ridges and any depth you
like in the ravines; the sun get warmer:
| up above you, near the crest of the
mountain, little bits of CRYSTALS detatch
| themselves and 60 rolling down the slope:
a tiny crack opens a your feet and
widens across the gulch; in an instant
the whole snowy mass is in motion and
with Kissing, rushing sound and an up
heavel along the edges goes hurting down
the gorge. Faster and faster it glides:
the air is filed with snowy spume: where
you stood it was rivulet; 1000 feet be-
low it is mad torrent: the noise increas-
es as it aims momentum.
Rocks are torn loose, broken to atoms
or ground to powder, trees uprooted and
broken to pieces, logs smashed ito spin
tiers. AT half mile on its path it presents
crest Of twenty or thirty feet in height
and moves faster than an express train;
woe betde any living thing in its way
now. Nothing made by man can stand
before it; the wind of its creation is a
hurricane, cloud of snow and dust
follows in it's wake; in seething torrent
1t pours over rock and precipces
and moving relentlessly ON
leaves in its track broken and crushed
fragments of rocks and trees. The thun-
der dies, is gone; and the avalanche
passed Down at the foot of the slope,
mile away, mountains of snow tossed
up in hopeless chaos, wild tangle Of
rocks, earth, trees and logs remain to
mark the slide, and often, alas, too often,
he bodies of brave men caught in its
rush lie buried in its icy embrace.
All around you can hear, day and
night, the distant, mutfied roar of pass
ing avalauches. They come and 90 at
all times and at all hours each year a
new one is created They have claimed
their blood tribute; each has it's record
Of brave men done to death. These av
alanches are everywhere; there is not a
wagon road or a mountain trail that
does not cross the path of several. on
the Kaslo-Slocan road to New-Denyer
there are five or six; on the Winter road
to SandOn and Cody creek four; all trails
to the mines cross and re-crosS these
destroyers; yet IN all season of greatest
danger there is more traffic on these
roads and trails than on many highways
in civilization. Marvellous escapes are
an everyday matter. No one hesitates
or delays on account of the peril to be
incurred Often, very often, the snow
slide passes few feet from the Ore-laden
pack team, but net always with warn
ing. In an instant men and animals are
overwhelmed and tossed like straws in
the boil of seething snow. 1t is merciful
that death is instantaneous then.
The force of the wind created by one |
of these large slides is well-nigh incredi- !
Bile. In the Valley of .the Illecillawaet,
on the line of the Canadian Pacific, tree
tops are cut off by the force of the wind !
on 1.-The opposite side of the ravine
through which the avalanche descends.
The snow is pressed into the hardness |
office, and literally tears or grinds to
powder everything in its path The
many !deplorable fatalities that have
lately occurred IN the SLOGAN are partly !
due to the destruction of the timber on
the wooded slopes by!sthe fearful fires
of last summer. trees holding up the snow
and preventing sliding. We read of !
many brave and heroic acts, but surely |
the patient courage That daily takes even |
chances with death on the slopes and in |
the mountains of the SLOGAN deserve !
ynnTp Than a TaCSipn t1b ,to