Show rhe FHE RUSH OF AN AVALANCHE berils oi of travel in the S snow low mountains ot of british columbia imagine it you can the very roughest sc bit or nature you have ever 8 seen 11 or take a newspaper crumple it into a aall and placing it on a lauie suppose lit ail us its imbed pans pairs to be peaks cilia llie picture tile as nages mole moie or less lie follows aare smooth or bleed bleep ab aa ole na root ot 01 me elle SLeep steepest house you abow ol 01 i htiu you have an all idea ot of tile me moun allis tiiu goies ul trie inu blozan says baa cliv vl cLOlla colomet colo mst libl let us suppose we are standing ne near ar the he summit oi of one of these bugea on a ought sunny day In January it 11 has ab een snowing continually 1 and ana the he beaULI till lies in fix plent plenteous prolusion everywhere six to 10 eight LL leei el leep deep in the timbered ridges und and any depth you like in the ravines the me sun seis wari warmed nei up alove above you near tile the arest of 01 trie me mountain little bus OL oi osvals osia ls detach themselves and go rolling down the slope a tiny crack lorms ae 11 your feet and widens across tile the gulan in an instant the whole snowy mass is in motion and with a hissing cust rustling ling sound and an upheaval al along ong its eugas goes hurling down the gorge teaster faster and taster it glides the air is with snowy spume where you stood it was a rivulet a thousand beel it Is a mad torrent toi rent the noise in 11 eases cleades as it gains momentum HOCKS are torn loose broken to LQ atoms or ground to powder trees uprooted ap rooted and bicken to pieces logs smashed to splinters at half a mile on its path li 11 pie vie senis IL a crest of twenty to thirty beet in height and moves taster than ari an express train woe betide any living thing in its way now mottling made by man can stand before it the wind or of its creation Is a hurricane a cloud of snow and dust follows in us its wake in a seething torrent it pours over rock arid and precipice and moving restlessly on leaves in its track broken and crushed fragments of rock brucic aria and trees and the smooth and polished grasses lit in the gorge the thunder dies is gone and tile avalanche I 1 Is s passed down at the toot foot of the slope a mile away mountains of snow tossed up in ili nape lebs enaus chaos a wild tari tangle gic ul OL uis euith earth trees and logs remain to lu nanc the slide and olien ulas alas LOU loo the bodies of brave men caught in its rush lie ile burled buried in ili its icy tin cin ordee lit all around you can hear day and night the distant muffled roar or passing avalanches they come arid and go at all times limes and at all hours bacri year a new one Is created for tile the older ones art are well known they have bacri claimed their blood tribute each one olle has its record of brave men done to death these avalanches are everywhere there it not a wagon road or a mountain trail that does not cross the path of several on the also slocan road to new denver there are five or six on the winter road to sandon arid and cody creek four all trails to tile the mines cross arid and these moving destroyers desti yet all the season of greatest danger there Is more traffic on these roads anti and trails than on many highways in ili civilization marvelous escapes are an everyday every day matter no one aiesi hesitates tates or delays on account of tile the peril to be incurred often very often the passes a few feet from the ore laden pack team but not always with warning in an instant men and animals are overwhelmed arid and tossed like straws in the boll of seething snow it Is merciful that death Is instantaneous the force of the wind created by one of these larger slides Is iff well nigh incredible in tho the valley of the Ille calle cille baet on the line of tile the canadian pa clec tree topic are cut oft off by the f force orce ot of the wind on the opposite side of the ravine through gli which the tha avalanche d de ascends the sl snow I 1 19 11 preslee pressed into th the e hardness or of ice an and a literally litera c ly tears tear s 0 or r everything in it its 9 grinds to powder path the many declora deplorable ble fatalities that have lately occurred in the slocan are partly due to the ot of the timber on the wooded slopes by the tearful fearful ires fires ot of last summer the trees holding ill lip the snow and preventing sliding we read of many brave and heroic acts but surely the patient courage that daily takes even chances with death on the slopes and in the th e mountains of the slocan deserves more than a passing tribute |