1 88 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



half a mile below, completely concealed behind 

 an enormous screen of snow-dust. 



In the spring one cannot be certain where or 

 when a slide will start. Big canons are joined 

 by several smaller canons. A slide may run 

 down one of these smaller canons any hour. 

 But all these slides run through the big canon. 

 I had just crossed a big canon when three slides, 

 each from a smaller canon, rushed by like snow 

 express trains. 



Although slides run wild and simply refuse to 

 be stopped until the coast is ended, they can be 

 anchored or fastened so that they will jiot start. 

 In numerous canons and on most slopes the 

 snow will not slip and slide unless hit by rocks 

 or snow from overladen steeps above. Many 

 mountain villages or mine buildings are effec- 

 tively protected by anchoring the snow deposit 

 which starts a slide and makes the trouble. I 

 have seen slides corralled in this way hog-tied 

 as it were so they could not start. 



One mine which I visited was on a steep slope 

 above the treeline and not far from the top of 

 the mountains where winds blew deep drifts. 

 Twice these snowdrifts had slipped, and the huge 

 slides had swept down upon the buildings and 

 carried them, smashed, to the bottom of the 

 canon a mile below. But for several years 

 these snowdrifts had not slid, for they were 



