AVALANCHE AND SLIDE-ROCK 285 



to a hundred feet; and woe to any living thing that is 

 caught in its toils! 



" When the snow is in the proper condition, a very 

 small thing indeed will start a wet slide. A stone no 

 larger than an egg, falling from some overhanging rock, 

 or a handful of wet snow slipping from a shrub, is 

 all that is required to set acres of the sodden stuff in 

 motion. Once started, its power is resistless, and it de- 

 scends with a mighty roar that may be heard for miles, 

 carrying everything before it. When it is under full 

 headway and strikes standing timber, it sweeps it down 

 like grass before a sickle. The trees fall backward like 

 grain before the reaper, and are carried down and 

 ground to kindling-wood. In many respects the dry 

 slide differs from the wet slide. It comes down only 

 in very cold weather, when the snow is fresh and light. 

 While it does not have the crushing weight of the wet 

 slide, it is by far the most dangerous to human life. 

 Generally it is started by the settling of the snow. In 

 all high mountains where snow falls deep, one will 

 notice that in passing over a body of newly-fallen snow, 

 sometimes it will suddenly drop, as it were, with a swish- 

 ing sound, and settle from one half to two inches. When 

 this happens on very steep ground it will slide, and more 

 especially if there is crusted snow underneath, affording 

 it a smooth surface to start upon. 



" A dry slide travels more swiftly than a wet one for 

 the reason that it completely fills the air, and creates a 

 driving wind equal to a tornado. When in sweeping 

 down a steep drop it reaches a sharp turn, it will spread 



