The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-11-28
THEY SLIDE FIFTY MILES.
Californians in Ecstacies Over a
Long Toboggan Ride.
From the Chicago Tribune.

From the Chicago Tribune.
What would the people in the Eastern
and Northern States, who find delight in
coasting hills quarter or a half mile long
these days, or who go into esctacy at shoot
ing down tobaggan slide, say to g ride
la toboggan down slide fifty miles long ?
There are several places in California where
such an experience may be had. The
ride is not only an uninterrupted constant
slide for forty to fifty miles from start to
finish, but it is as thrilling, risky and rapid
as any one might wish. Think of riding
in small craft in great trough from 80 to
100 feet in the air from a lofty mountain
crest down through forests, across canons,
around precipices and crags, over cattle
ranches, orchards and vineyards and amid
very picturesque scenery
All the fumes are V shaped, and the
water flowing through is yard deep at
the deepest part. When in operation the
flume is gorged for week at a time with
lumber, which is fished out at the valley
terminus of the hume and sorted and piled
ready for use. The longest aume is in
Northern California 1t is sixty -four miles
long and cost $3.50, 900, where the lumber
is cheap. A new lumber fume was re-
Gently finished in Fresno county. 1t is
with this fume that this story deals. 1t
leads from the immense pine forests on the
mountains, 1000 feet above sea level, down
into the San Joaquin Valley, at the little
town of Coils, near Fresno. In other
words, the hume starts amid the perpetual
SHOWS and ice of the Sierra and terminates
amid raisin vineyards and apricot orchards
of the semi-trOpic San Joaquin. Stephenson
creek, in the mountains, supplies the fume
with water
The first ride down the new fume from
start to finish was made few days ago.
Many persons had passed over different
parts of the distance as the hume was be-
ing built, but none made the whole distance
without stopping.
The passenger does not realize just how
he gets into the boat nor how he makes
the start. 1t is all over before he has
time to think. He has an ungovernable
desire to clutch at things, but before he
can do SO he is gone, and the speed makes
him catch his breath, and that is all he
can do, The start has been made, and it
might be race to the finish. If one
should attempt to stop when the speed is
so great it would result in something
serious. Even if he should see broken
place ahead of him, where the fume had
gone over a precipice, he would not stop,
but must run into it and take the conse-
quences. Such mishap is not likely, but
is possible.
After a four miles run the boat sud-
denly emerges from forest of pines and
fir, and the passengers in the boat exper-
fence the feeling of person in balloon,
when the world seems to drop away from
under him. The fume runs out over a
high trestle, and at first glance nothing is
visible underneath. There seems to be
nothing but unfathomable space, This is
near the turn around the point of Stephen
son Mountain, and the vast abyss beneath,
which seemed bottomless, is the canon of
the San Joaquin river, down just how far
beneath would be hard to guess. 1t looks
not less than 5000 feet; it may be less.
But by leaning over as the boat hurries
by one can catch momentary view of the
white foam of the river of the canon
Not sound is heard. The plunging of
the river over sunken rocks that fret its
channel cannot send even a murmur up the
summit OF the cliff, from which the pas
senger in the hume boat looks down as he
hurries on. Nearly everywhere in sight
the canon is dark at that hour of the morn
ing. but at two or three places the sunlight
pours through gateways in the cliffs, and
the beams fall on flaming floods, silent in
the distance, and gid the blackness of
granite cliffs which hang like walls 1000
feet above the river.
Although the toughest parts of the
mountains are left behind after the head of
Dry creek is reached, the fume has still
some of its steepest grades below that point.
The decline is not uniform, varying from
hardly perceptible grade to as much as one
foot in eight. Down the steepest places
the boat rushes, at speed which approaches
very nearly the limit Of safety, Within
FIVE or six miles further the fume sweeps
round the brink of high, bold granite
cliff, and two miles away and 1000 feet
below the little village Of Toll House bursts
into view. Green fields surround it, even
in winter, but it has forsaken appearance,
for its days of prosperity are numbered.
1t was for thirty years astopping place for
teamsters hauling lumber from the noun
tains, but the fume will bring lumber down
hereafter, and the teams will never return.
Such il the life and death of towns,
When the hume has passed Toll House
it has entered the foothills, and the excite
ment is over. The way leads for twenty
miles down narrow valley, and the pas
sengers in the boat have nothing to alarm
them, as they glide along so smoothly and
peacefully that, if they shut their eyes,
they would probably fall asleep. The
speed grows less and less as the plains are
approached, and now and then vineyards
or an orange orchard are seen standing in
pleasing contrast with the ice and winter
coldness of the mountains now 1000 feet
above. Before the end is reached the
flume boat passes over fine vineyards, in
which, even so late in the season as De-
cember, large quantities of grapes load the
vines.
First Things in Maryland.