286 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



out and run up on the mountain-side sometimes five hun- 

 dred feet; or, diving into a canyon, it will dash up the 

 opposite side for scores of feet, carrying with it large trees 

 and stones. Often a dry slide is half a mile wide, and 

 any one caught in its path is almost sure to be either in- 

 stantly killed, or buried in the blinding, seething mass, 

 of snow, and smothered. 



" If a hunter should be crossing the path of an on- 

 coming slide, even if it were but a few hundred feet 

 wide, he could never hope to reach safe ground; but if 

 one is in a steep gulch and near a turn, by acting quickly 

 one may possibly have a fair chance to escape by good 

 judgment and quick action. One must always climb up 

 on the short side of the turn, no matter what obstacles are 

 in the way. In such a situation, a man's impulse would 

 be to take the wrong side because it is always more clear 

 of brush; but this open ground is only a snare, and the 

 fact of its being clear should always teach us to keep 

 away. 



*' Where a gulch is straight for a long distance, the one 

 in peril may then choose the shortest way out. The dan- 

 gers of these slides are not so much from starting the snow 

 one's self, as in being caught while crossing the foot of 

 the slide-way, at the base of the mountain. The dry 

 slides are so swift and terrible that the wind caused by 

 them sometimes uproots timber some distance away. 



" Slides on southern slopes are less liable to start by 

 being disturbed high up, except immediately after a 

 storm, or in the early spring. As they are affected by the 

 sun they soon become crusted, but on the northern slopes, 



