Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-10-08
!, and his>great leaps set me the e1-

ed, and hig>great leaps set me the Ell
ample. s,
He must have stepped on what was
the keystone of the entire mass, SO
set that its slightest movement would.
affect the whole. AS ran cast one
hasty glance upward. + verify be-
ieve that every piece of rock from
topic bottom was in motion at once.
The whole mountainside seemed to
be crawling toward us.
First there came the faint rolling
and clinking of scattered pebbles,
then loud rattle, swelling into the
roar of an avalanche, as rock after
rock added itself to the sliding mass
One instant the declivity lay silent
and motionless in the moonlight; the
next it was all alive, slipping, grind
ing, roaring, with the sound of a
stone crusher in full action
1t was useless to think of gaining
the ledge at which we had aimed.
twenty-five feet below it was anoth-
er, not quite SO high, but longer and
narrower, and toward this we bent
our course in flying leaps.
There was no chance to pick the
best spot for holding on. We threw
ourselves down upon the ledge On
our faces, fortunately clutching a
shoulder. Had we gained the boul-
der above, at which we had aimed.
we should have been swept away by
the food that poured over-it. AS it
was it broke the force Of the slide
and kept the great mass Of rock away
from us.
Our situation was still perilous in
the extreme. The ledge which af-
forded US refuge rose only a few
inches above the surrounding debris.
Had the stones confined themselves
to rolling it would have been bad
a--A-4L ~-~-.a q L
fiected and shot high into the air by
passing over the ledge above, rained
down upon us like the spray Of
rocky waterfall.
It was fortunate that our eyes and
teeth escaped, for, as we lay, we were
obliged to face the avalanche. OF
course we could not shelter our faces
with our hands, for we needed every
finger to hold on with. So we ducked
our heads as low as possible, and the
missiles beat tattoo upon our skulls
until our hair was matted with blood.
Had the stones been any larger we
should have been battered into insen-
sibility and quickly hurled over the
precipice. =
Once I was in deadly peril. A
rock, larger than the rest, struck my
fingers, mum bing them and causing
me to relax my hold. My grasp was
torn away, and for the fraction OF
| terrible second I was at the mercy OF
the torrent. Then my guide, at the
risk of his own life, let go the ledge
with one hand and clutched my shoul-
der. Again I regained my place and
| clung with redoubled strength.
The force of the slide abated. The
dust cleared. Lastly few scattered
| rocks dashed down over the denuded
surface. At one instant stony Mia
| CARA seemed to be roaring around
us; then we heard the distant rumble
of its fall die away in the depths OF
| the ravine. The next moment there
was utter stiffness, as sudden as ii
great door. padded and mufied, had
shut out the sound. Only the snow.
crowned peak, high above us, gave
back the pale light of the moon.
Then we saw the reason why the
mass had slid so smoothly and rap
idly. The slope was practically
| plane inclined at sharp angle. bro
ken, to be sure, by a few projecting
lodges but in the main free from OBJ
structions. How long it had been
collecting it's load we could only con-
| lecture. AS the cliff above disinte-
grated under the action of frost and
rair and ice, small pieces fell from 1t
one by one, until the whole slant be-
came charged with fragments ready
| to be set in motion by the least i'm
pulse. Possibly the next falling rock
of any considerable size might have
had the same effect that our steps
had had. There was every reason for
thinking that the thing had happened
many times, although very much
/ doubt if human feet had ever before
been the agency to set the mass in
| motion.