THE WHITE CYCLONE 117 



nearly four hundred feet, but over the most of its 

 meteoric course its forced passageway was less 

 than one hundred feet wide. Off this most of the 

 snow had been scraped. Every loose and detach- 

 able object was carried away. In spots its snout 

 had gouged into the earth. Along the track were 

 scattered stones and snow piles. A few places 

 showed that the momentum of the slide had caused 

 it to jump without touching the earth. It had 

 leaped one ravine more than fifty feet wide. 



Tons of shattered rock were swept forward, 

 mostly in the bottom of the slide. At one point a 

 heavy granite rock thrust up ten or twelve feet in 

 the track. Striking this caused no perceptible 

 check in its wild speed but there was a muffled 

 explosion. Stones were flung from the sides and 

 hurled through the top of the slide. Clouds of 

 snow dust were thrown off. This contact must 

 have thrown the internal part of the slide into 

 fierce confusion. 



In following the open way through which the 

 main slide tore I found where this slide had started 

 two others, one of which I heard and the other I 

 both saw and heard. Their swift, spectacular 

 careers and their wild, sudden endings were graph- 

 ically, dramatically shown in the torn and im- 

 printed snow. These slides were set in motion just 

 after the main slide was well under way. Although 

 I did not see slide number two, I heard it. Slide 

 number three I both saw and heard. 



