The San Francisco call., 1898-04-11

hill near the first descent from the Scales stood a tent that was partially buried by snow. When the men came to it, crying Come out! Come out! Run from the avalanchel" there was no answer, and they hastily tore open the flies of the tent Three men lay inside, crushed to death under a weight of heavy boxes and timber that have been thrown upon them py d snowslide The bodies were taken out and there was some considerable delay before it was fully determined that they were dead and that the Wlsest thing to be done at the time was to leave them. This delay no doubt cost many lives. The men returned to thelr places on the line and it moved on.
 Down near the power house of the Chilcoot Railway and Transportatlon Company the trail divides, path down a deeper cut being reserved TOT individuals ard handsled men as apart from the horses and regular packmen. A rope had been stretched along one side of the trail which is, or was, deep gully, b which those going up could assist themselves. T--e leader or the line had given out exhausted ana taken a place further back, and new man was in his place. He swerved over and made down the side trail, in tending to use the rope as guide. for the 4~qil was now obliterated by the downfall of snow. They had scarcely entered the lower level of the side trail when a man ran down the line crying:
 The power house is falling, boys! Look out! Look out!"
 There was a low, hissing sound; the earth, or the great snowdrift, seemed to rise up; those on the rear end Of the rope saw the dark line in front of them lean to one side for an instant. rise and fall back. and there was only the whiteness of the snow where the black line had been.
 Tt was as though you scattered d handful of ten-penny nails ln tne snow, so completely and silently olu they disappear" according to one or those in the rear who saw It.
 Men with shovels have been placed al the forward and rear end of the hne. The forward man was lost. Only one shovel was at hand. About twenty on the rear end of the line were only part ly submerged, and these worked them selves clear. Among them was Hol- brook, and he took the shovel and be- gan to work down the line. Messengers were sent to Sheep Camp calling for as- sistance, and force came down from the power-house. The power house had not moved; it was merely the illusion in the eye of the excited man who saw Il, h H
 The work of the afternoon and night recovered six men living and the bodies of twenty-one dead. The dead and liv- ing were carried to the powerhouse near by, where all that could be done was done for them. There are a num- Der of physicians at Sheep Camp, and they, with a corps of assistants, labor ed for the resuscitation of all who were brought in. The people at Sheep Camp were slow to believe the first excited messengers from the disaster, but, as sured of the terrible truth, they turned out in numbers and worked tirelessly.
 The loss of the men in the employ of the ChilcoOt Railway and Transporta- tion Company was not realized until Monday morning, for the nineteen
 
 snow, leaving not one to tell of their fate. There had been almost no out side work done on the line for several days because of the storm. The men had become restless. md when one of the bosses proposed that a certain wire that had gotten out of place on one of the towers be fixed he found ready volunteers, even to the chief, engineer and head bookkeeper. The party of nineteen started up the trail and reach ed the vicinity of the power-h house about a half hour before the men on the rope came down from the Scales. Some men in the power house saw them pass and declare that there were thirty-five of them by actual count. This, how ever, must be an error, as only nineteen Df the employees are missing
 A few moments after they passed those men in the power-house felt 2 rush of snow but paid no attention to It, believing it to have been nothine more than a slide f1om the roof. Ii was half an hour later when a man ran in and gave notice of the slide that buried the people coming down from the Scales. So it is clear there were two aValanches, occurring a half houl apart. at the same place, and both, b1 strange circumstance, falling at the moment when large parties of mer were passing. The employees of the transportation company were stationed at Sheep Camp, and there they would have been missed that evening bu- that messenger called upon NelSOr Bennett, the general manager. at hi. office there, from J. B. Pierce, the book. Keeper, saying that he was all right but would not return that nieht-he would remain on the summit. The mes senger was a stranger to MT Benneff and he does not know where Pierce was when he dispatched him or what time he did so, but the message caused Ken. nett to rest easy that night with re- gard to the party. Not until morning dld ne discover that they were all lost
 The party was composed of Clarence McNeil of San Francisco, chief en- gineer, formerly first assistant chief en- g1neer of the sea wall improvement of the Fair estate at San Francisco. He IS married and has a family. George Lewis, foreman of the Stone House camp; I. B. Pierce of Portland. head bookkeeper, married; Tim Glinn. fore man of the Camn at Sbaa,o C,o,. |.