The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1895-05-03
WINTER IN THE SIERRaS. :,
Twenty Feet of snow-Drifts Higher Than
the Houses

Julian Ralph, writing in Harper's
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 great snowshed, and plunged
down 4 steep hillside into the village
below, which was but family Indicated
by a few chimneys that here and there
broke through the beautiful undulating
blanket that lay high and thick upon
the mountains, the knobs and valleys
all around me. The trees. numbered
with deep white snow upon every pro-
lection, rested their middle branches
upon the soft bedding of snow. so that
they looked dwarfed and misshapen
In places great granite powders sat III
hollow wells scooped out by the wind.
and on the tops of such stones rested
nightcaps of snow that were taller
than the rocks themselves. Drifts rose
in cork-screw shapes that ended in fan
tastic curls upon their tops. The way
to some of the houses was 10y tunnels.
but looking straight down from above
them there could only be seen little
white-walled shaft opposite the door,
as If a hole had been dug there to let in
snow had banked against the houses
up to the roof-line, and then had
mounted upon itself and grown in
weight and depth until there was dan
ger that the roofs would be crushed in.
That was why saw men on Norwegian
snow-shoes walking over their OWE
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 to the nearest tavern
was a chain of lively adventures. Safe
inside the tavern door. / saw row of
Norwegian snowshoes dripping against
the wall. | found that upon them the
villagers travel in the winter and that
without them they would be Jailed in
their homes. Canadian network shoes
would not serve. The snow is too fine
and dry. Therefore the shoe in use is
board four inches wide and from nine
to a dozen feet long. The women go
shopping and visiting upon them. The
doctors travel twenty-five miles at
time upon them on their rounds. The
girls coast upon the roofs and smaller
knobs upon them. The venturesome
mountain sides upon them at twenty
miles an hour, and even jump ravines
and leap over cabins and houses with
these shoes in the course of their wagers
and tn cir dangerous fun.
That and nightly dances in the snow
bound villages are all the fun the peo-
pie get There is too much winter in
the Sierras for carnival frolics such as
are had in Canada. Winter on these
California terraces is too severe to lee
trifled 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 went into supper by way of
tunnel from the cars to the depot reStau-
rant. l saw no horses or sleighs. but |
was told that when the snow depths
cease to deepen and the trails are
pressed hard down, horses are often
used When they step aside from the
trails and sink all but ont of sight. their
owners find that they tire of struggling
and desire to resign themselves To
death. Then the plan is To choke them
with a Slip-nOoSe around their neckS
when they fight frantically for
breath that they can be led back to the
trail. 1t sometimes happens that
horse that sinks beside the trail slips
down through the snow upon the roof
of a buried house. Then there 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