196 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



gravel, and rocks in the mass that started. But 

 this was small compared with the quantity that 

 reached the bottom of the canon. Something 

 was added to the slide every foot of the way. 

 There were quantities of snow, rock piles, train- 

 loads of gravel, huge rock fragments from 

 cliffs, and several thousand forest trees. 



A squirrel who had had his winter store of cones 

 carried away and who evidently had narrowly 

 escaped being caught, was greatly peeved with 

 this performance. He chattered and scolded. 

 As I came running along, his peppery temper 

 was at its worst and he seemed to be denouncing 

 all snowslides and everything in general. 



At the bottom of a steep stretch the slide 

 had smashed through a forest, uprooting or 

 smashing off trees and making an opening 

 thirty-four steps wide. At one place it had 

 leaped and mowed off the trees several feet above 

 the earth. Then mystery! Four trees in a 

 line were left standing, though one of these 

 was skinned of a quantity of its bark. 



The ground beneath the slide had been swept 

 bare; grass, trash, loose rocks, and snow were 

 cleaned off and carried away. The four-foot 

 snow-cover in the woods on the side lines was 

 splashed and covered with trash and earthy, 

 black snow. Many trees on the slide's edges 

 were barked and numbers were leaning forward. 



