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narrowly did I miss the corner of a cliff that my 

 shadow collided with it. 



There was no time to bid farewell to fears 

 when the slide started, nor to entertain them 

 while running away from it. Instinct put me to 

 flight; the situation set my wits working at their 

 best, and, once started, I could neither stop nor 

 look back; and so thick and fast did obstruc- 

 tions and dangers rise before me that only dimly 

 and incidentally did I think of the oncoming 

 danger behind. 



I came down on the farther side of the gorge, 

 to glance forward like an arrow. There was only 

 an instant to shape my course and direct my 

 flight across the second arm of the gorge, over 

 which I leaped from a high place, sailing far 

 above the snow-mantled trees and boulders in 

 the bottom. My senses were keenly alert, and I 

 remember noticing the shadows of the fir trees 

 on the white snow and hearing while still in the 

 air the brave, cheery notes of a chickadee; then 

 the snowslide on my trail, less than an eighth 

 of a mile behind, plunged into the gorge with a 

 thundering crash. I came back to the snow on 



ii 



