The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-10

long, continuous dull boom Of a torrent,
and one gets a faint idea of the over
whelming grandeur Of these fierce noun
tain forces that sweep Whole forests
away like loose matches. With the ava
anche one law alone is known. Every
thing must keep out of the way. This
holds the investigator at a guardedly re-
spectful distance, and his observation
point is chosen with the strategy of
scout. says the New York Post.
In the Selkirks, where the snowfall is
heavier than in the Rockies, and the
slopes more precipitous, with fewer foot
hills, 2valancheS have an alarming trick
of jumping all guards and changing their
course without notice But on both rang
eS there are many places where one can
in perfect safety watch the snow tor
rents crash over pahsaded precipice with
roar that sets the very air vibrating.
WHERE THE SNOWSLIDE STARTS.
Lake Louise thirty miles west of the
entrance to the main northern Rockies,
is an ideal spot for observing the ways of
an avalanche A mountain of snow,
shutting off all view to midheavens, runs
sheer across one end of the lake, in
continuous, horizontal sky line, like
wall Of alabaster. Down this in parallel
vertical lines are etched the scOrings of
numerous aValancheS, that shoot over
the lower lodges in a final plunge. TO
the left Of Mount Victoria are Caste
Crags and LEROY, massive with snow of
unreasonable depth and fantastic form.
| Behind these peaks is a giant bastion,
| guarding the way to Paradise valley.
| This is Mount Temple, a huge, domed
! granite pile, towering high above the
clouds in an almost straight ascent, its
| naked rock, striped, grooved and chalked
| into thousand odd designs by falling
| avalanches. On all these peaks ava
| lanches may be see during the entire
| summer, and in the Selkirks there is
| scarcely a mountain of any altitude
| whose forested TANKS do not show the
| long, narrow, clean strip of an avalanche
! that has swept from summit to base.
1t Is when the heat of early summer
| melts the snow of the lower slopes, loos-
| ening the founda tons of the vast white
! fields along the peaks, that avalanches
| are most active and frequent. AS the
! thaw IS greatest at midday, that is the
best time to watch the snow torrents
fiinging down from airy heights to ahys-
| NAL depths. On Mount Victoria, for in
| stance, between II in the morning and 2
| in the afternoon, as many as thirteen
| different avalancheS have been seen
| Smaller volumes Of snow pour down as
| frequently from the south side of Mount
| Temple, and from the white edges of
! Castle Crags and Lefroy-edges that
from a distance seem only a few feet
| deep, but on actual measurement are
! from zoo to 800 vertical feet-break enor-
nous masses of solid, hard-packed snow,
! whirtfng slowly over and over through
the air till the falling weight gains ire
+ mendous momentum. Then the whole
| is shattered into a thousand fragments
against projecting lodges and crashes
| down in a shower of snow that clouds
| the air for an hour after the fall.
OTHER CAUSES POTENT.
The same course is not always followed.
A sudden heat sometimes frees an ac-
cItnIIiation at an unexpected point and
the irresistible volume plows a new fur
row for itself down the scared noun