CHAPTER XIV 



SNOWSLIDES FROM START TO FINISH 



ONE snowy March evening I arrived on 

 web snowshoes at a miners' boarding 

 house high up in the Twelve Mile Range 

 of mountains where snowslides are common in 

 spring. I had come to see snowslides, and after 

 I had spent all evening hearing the miners tell 

 about them I was more anxious than ever to 

 see how snowslides "run." 



Next morning I was up early and all ready 

 when the foreman came out and asked, "Has 

 the Ferguson run yet ? Well, then, tell Sullivan 

 to start her." Looking in my direction, he 

 added, "Tell him to take this fellow along." 



I followed Sullivan's example and seized a 

 ten-pound rock fragment on the dump, then 

 hurried along, trying on web shoes to keep up 

 with Sullivan's long skee strides. 



"The Ferguson," I learned, as we hustled 

 along, was the name of a gulch; and the thing 

 the foreman wanted started was the snow in 

 the upper end. Several times each winter, as 

 soon as snow from storm or wind accumulated 



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