Arizona silver belt., 1895-04-27
WINTER N TIE sl-RaAs.
Twenty Feet of snow-DrIfts Higher Than
 tho Houses.

Twenty Feet ot Snow-Drifts Higher Than
 tho Houses.
 Julian Ralph, writing in Ilarpers Weekly, thus recounts some of his re- cent experiences in the snow regions of the Sierras:
 Tired of the cars, which were then tied up at Emigrant Gap, left them under Q great snowshed, and plunged down steep hillside into the village below, which was but faintly indicated by few chimneys that here and there broke through the beautiful undulating blanket that lay high and thick upon the mountains, the lSnolls and valleys all around me, The trees, cumbcred with deep white snow upon every pro jection, rested their middle branches upon the soft bedding of snow, so that they looked dwarfed and misshapeu In places great granite powders sat in hollow wells scoopcd out by the wind,
 d on the tops of such stones rested
 yhtcaps of snow that were taller
 m tho rocks themselves. Drifts rose
 cork screw shapes that ended in fam t4stic curls upon their tops. The way to some of the houses was by tunnels, but looking straight down from above them there could only be seen little white-walled shaft opposite the door as If hole had been dug there to let in breath to the people indoors, The snow had banked agoipst the houses up to the roof-line, and then had mounted upon itself and grown in weight and depth until .hcre was dan ger that the roofs would be crushed in, That was why fshw men on Norwegian snow-shoes walking over their owa roofs and stopping there to shovel snow into battlemented walls beside them Thus they walled their houses in each day, only to find them submerged on the morrow, as the snow continued to fall
 My short walk tc the nearest tavern was a chain of lively adventures, Safe inside the tavern door, saw row of Norwegian snowshoes dripping against the wall. l found that upon them the villagers travel in the winter. and that without them they would be ia.ed in their homes. Canadian network shoes would not serve, The snow is too fine and dry. Therefore the shoe in use is a board four ins .es wide and from nine to a dozen feet long. The women Eo shopping and visiting upon them. The doctors travel twenty-five mics at time upon them or their rounds. The girls coast uPor the roofs and smaller lnolls upon them. The vcuturcsO!ne young men actually race down the mountain sides upon them at twenty miles an hour and even juDP rav.ucs and leap over cabins and houses with these shoes in the course of their wagcrs and th cir dangerous fun.
 That and nightly dances in the snow bound villages arc all the fun the peo- ple get. There is mpe' winter n the Siefras for carnival froiics such as are had in Canada. Winter on these California terraces is too severe to be trined with or turned into the basis of a long roll of sports. In the larger towns the people dig tunnels from house to house and house to store, and at one station l went into supper by way Of tunnel from the ears 10 the ucpot rcagu- rant. saw no horses or slcjghs, but was told that when the snow depths cease to deepen and tho trails are pressed hard down, horses are often used. When they step aside from the trails and sink all but out of sight their owners find that they tire of strUgg ing and desire to .gn themselves t0 death. Then the plan is to choke thcm with a slip-noose around their necls when they fight so frandcally for breath that they can be led backto the traf. It sometimes happens that a horse that sinks beside the trail slips og,,ss plsFo' h the snow upon the root of q bnricd house. Then thcrc is great danger that he will continue downward through the shingles and into some ones parlor or bedroom.
 In all the United States there is no other winter and no other snowfall like this. Five years ago it lay twenty three feet on the level in these noun tains.