The San Francisco call., 1896-11-19
LASHED TO TREES
ON THE mount AIN
Prospectors in the Cascades
Pass a Night of
Horror.
Tie Themselves to Keep From
Beng twept Down by
Avalanches.
Lives of Many Mountaineers Be.
lieved to Have B en- Lost
During the Storm.

Of Seattle and vicinity who by reason OF
floods and snow have been prisoners since
Friday last in a fastness of the Cascade
Mountains are arriving, some on gravel
trains, some afoot and others by boat.
They tell narrowing tale OF suffering,
devastation and destruction. The situa-
tion as described in these dispatches from
day 10 day has not been exaggerated in
the least, if indeed the fury and fiarceness
of the storm has been fully portrayed.
There has been great suffering and no
doubt many miners and prospeciors IN
the Cascades have met death from snow
slides and drowning.
Four prospectors, headed by Joseph
Nicholson, operating claim in Snoqual-
mie Pass in the Cascades for G. P. Devine.
a merchant of this city. arrived this after
noon. One of the men is raving maniac
because ot the suffering and hardships
endured in their effort to get out. On
Saturday night in order to keep from be-
ing swept down the mountain by snow
slices the four prospectors lashed them
selves to trees. Here they remained in
the drenching rain for six or eight hours
Meanwhile great powders, earth and huge
sections of snow kept sliding down into
the canyons and gulches below. Trees
were torn up by the roots and carried
away by avalanches. The noise was some
thing indescribably horrifying.
On Sunday with the break of day the
prospectors tore away the lashings and
began their perilous journey out of the
mountains. They followed Gold Creek to
Lake Keecheios, tTamping through snow
four and five feet deep, crossing small
streams on logs and driftwood, finally
finding their way to where the Northern
Pacific crosses the Cascades, and thence
down the railroad to this city.
Two Seattle business men were caught
at Index on Thursday. They were three
days walking thirtv-five miles to Sno-
homish, crossing small streams on drift
wood and larger ones by boat. They re-
port that No. Great Northern westbound
overland PASSENGER train, with forty-one
| passengers, due here last Friday morning
at o'clock, is stranded between Wei
| lington and Madison, it being impossible,
owing to the great washouts on either
| side, to get the train out. This fact the
railroad officials have carefully concealed
from the public. When last heard from
twelve tirst-class passengers were supplied
| with half rations from the dining-car
while the oay-coach and second-class
passengers, including twenty-four Chi.
nese, managed 10 procure scant food sup.
| plies from Wellington. The Chinese are
bound for China by the steamship Kiushiu
Maru, now in port.
The gentlemen giving this information
say there are ten washouts on the Great
Northern from Index to Sultan, q dis.
tance of fourteen miles. On the upper
falls of the Skykomis two bridges are
gone, besides 1200-foot washouts and q
number of slides. When the flood was al
its height the Great Northern main line
| between Morrow and Skykomish, dis
tance of seven miles, was inundated to q
! epth from six to fifteen feet.
To-day's advices are to the effect that
the waters of all rivers have receded tc
within their. banks, save at Snohomish
In the flats and bottoms the water GOV
cred thousands of acres of rich farm land
leaving nothing but wreck and ruin. The
Great Northern is making no attempt to
run trains. save passenger on the coast
line north to Stanwood. Large forces OF
men are ut work on the coast and main
line. but there is but little prospect Of
early resumption OF traffic.
Three minutes after the Northern Pa
ciic Portland passenger train coming
toward Tacoma had passed along Sunday
night, a half mile of the track and road
bed near Ainsle slid into the Cowlitz
River. A. E. Lanier, a commercial trav-
eler who was on the train, says the noise
could be heard for miles around.
The Saturday and Sunday Eastern
mails were received in this city to-day
but there has been none from San Fran
cisco and south since last Friday night
The Northern Pacific, by transferring, i:
now running overland trains from Ia.
coma, making steamer connections from
this city also to Portland.
A report from Everett says that 200 cat.
| tie were drowned there, and steamers are
plying over the marshes 10 save human
lives.
| GREAT DAMAGE AT WALLACE