SNOWSLIDES 193 



"Yes," he said, "the slide is likely to break 

 loose any hour. It will smash through several 

 stretches of forest in going down the mile or 

 more of steep slope to the bottom of the canon. 

 There will be a vast pile of broken timber, rocks 

 large and small, and quantities of dirty snow and 

 ice in one big mass together. But I think the 

 cabin is secure from slides, although the big 

 snow- and ice-field when it runs will come close 

 to it." 



The next morning I climbed into the heights 

 while the prospector climbed down a short dis- 

 tance to work in a tunnel. Thinking to see the 

 big old ice- and snow-field if it started to run I 

 kept in sight of it most of the day. But it did 

 not move, although othets had moved or were 

 moving. I saw a path where a number of slides 

 had run; two had jumped over high cliffs. I 

 heard others running in deep canons where I 

 could not see them, but the steamy clouds of 

 white ice- and snow-powder which rolled up out of 

 the canon behind them were a wonder show. 

 Often one can see this back streamer of snow- 

 dust from a canon when the slide itself is too far 

 away to be heard or seen. 



I found a slope where two slides had collided. 

 One had slid for half a mile down a smooth slope 

 and developed speed enough to carry it far up the 

 opposite slope when it met another slide speed- 



