i8 4 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



in the gulch or on the summit rim, the snow ran 

 out in a slide the Ferguson slide. When it 

 failed to start promptly of its own accord after a 

 heavy snowstorm the miners started it. It was 

 dangerous to use the road over the gulch, half a 

 mile below, with the snowslide impending. A 

 slide of several hundred tons of snow could rush 

 the full length of the smooth, steep-sided gulch 

 in a minute or less, although it was from a quar- 

 ter to half a mile deep and more than a mile long 



The mine building stood on the top of the 

 plateau a short distance from the head of the 

 gulch. Whirling winds made a current down the 

 gulch, but as they swept over the rim the current 

 was broken and much of the wind-carried snow 

 was dropped, forming in a few hours an enor- 

 mous snow cornice at the upper rim of the gulch 

 Here we stopped. 



"Throw her there," directed Sullivan. 



My ten-pound rock made a snowy splash, 

 Instantly a wagonload of snow slipped, then the 

 entire cornice caved off and the whole mass ol 

 snow in the upper end of the gulch started slid- 

 ing. With a rush and roar it swept down the 

 gulch. Whirling, back-flying snow filled the 

 sky above the canon with snowflakes and snow 

 dust. The Ferguson had run. 



I climbed down the cleaned-out gulch and 

 hurried eagerly to have a look at the snow that 



