1094 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ciated with human activities and to picture what would side. The gashes made hy the two unite-^' belnw the slate 

 have been the result had a thriving mining town been in quarry and left the enormous mass of mountain isolated 

 the pathwav of even the small Cimniaron landslip, one and unsupported. Then four minutes later those who 



were watching the phenomenon from a 

 distance beheld the whole upper portion 

 of the I'lattenbergkopf — 12,000.000 cubic 

 yards of rock — suddenly shoot down the 

 hillside. The great mass pitched for- 

 ward with tremendous velocity until it 

 reached the slate quarry. Then the ujiper 

 part shot forward horizontalh- straight 

 across the valley and up the opposite hill- 

 slope. A great wind was flung before 

 it, which blew trees about like matches 

 and lifted houses through the air like 

 feathers. The avalanche, shooting with 

 incredible swiftness across the valley, 

 struck the opposite hillslopes obliquely 

 and was immediately deflected like water 

 dnwn the level but fertile \alle\" floor, 

 which it covered in a few seconds to the 

 distance of nearh- a mile and over its 

 whole width — a million square yards — 

 with a mass nf rock debris from ten to 

 sixty feet deep. P.efore the avalanche 

 tlure lay a peaceful village and fertile 



Phnl,' l\v Whitman Crvss. L' . S. C, S. 



I,IZARD'S HEAD 



Once upon a time this lofty pinnacle in Colorado, 

 14.0111) feet high, bore no resemblance to a lizard''^ 

 he.id. That was before the major portion of tlir 

 peak broke away from its moorings atid crashed 

 down the mountainsiile, a rock avalanche constitn- 

 Iiiil; millions of tons of stone. 



must turn to the account of the greai 

 Kim landslide in Switzerland in Issl nr 

 the Frank slide in Alberta in lito;!. 



The town of Elm is the highest village 

 in the Sernf Meadow. Overshadowing 

 it rose the steep I'lattenbergkopf, llie 

 outmost buttress of a greater mountain 

 mass. About half way up this hill was a 

 slate mine. /\ creek licgan to form .aliuNr 

 the mine, which became t\\el\e feet 

 wide, swallowing up all surface drain- 

 age. It was lielie\ed that the uinniii.iin 

 would ultim.ateh- fill, biri no one thuu^lil 

 the danger imininent. Uocks beg.an in 

 fall at intervals. Septenilier 1 1 w.is a 

 rainv Sunrlay. Ri ic]< in.-is-rs ke|)t f.illing 

 and the ninuntain grnaiied .and rnmblcil. 

 People gathered to fatch tlie falN. inUT- 

 ested but not alarmed, ^\i the \illagers 

 might better have lingered lo witness a 

 hundred-ton dynamite explosion. Sud- 

 denly a mass of the mountain broke ;iwav 

 from the east side of tin- I'lattenberg 

 kopf, crashed down over the slate i|uan\ .and s|iread 

 away over the flat. No one was killed 1)\ this fall, though 

 the rocks reached within ,a ! me's throw of wdiere the 

 sightseers were gathered. The people of the upper 

 village now took mild alarm. A few minutes after a 

 second and larger rock mass tumbled down over the west 



PACK OF LAXDSLIDE MOUNTAIN 



rile slopes of many mountains in the landslide area of Colorado have been scalped bare of 

 every vestige of vegelation. With tens of thousands of tons of rock descending like a 

 flash, the most heavily wooded mount.-' ■ sides are swept like grass before a prairie lire. 



grain fields ; within twenty seconds a solid gray carpet 

 had been spread, beneath which rested the remains of 

 150 human beings, their houses and their flelds. The 

 rock torrent iiad swept away half the village, its sharp 

 edge cutting one house in two. All within the fatal edge 

 were destrovd ; all without were saved. 



