ward me. Wildly it threw off masses of snowy 

 spray and agitated, confused whirlwinds of 

 snow-dust. I was watching from the top of a 

 precipice. Below, the wide, deep canon was 

 filled with fleecy clouds, — a bay from a sea of 

 clouds beyond. The slide shot straight for the 

 cloud-filled abyss and took with it several hun- 

 dred broken trees from an alpine grove that it 

 wrecked just above the precipice. 



This swift-moving monster disturbed the air, 

 and excited, stampeding, and cyclonic winds 

 flung me headlong, as it tore by with rush and 

 roar. I arose in time to see the entire wreckage 

 deflected a few degrees upward as it shot far out 

 over the cloud-made bay of the ocean. A riot- 

 ing acre of rock-fragments, broken trees, shat- 

 tered icebergs, and masses of dusting snow hesi- 

 tated momentarily in the air, then, separating, 

 they fell whirling, hurtling, and scattering, with 

 varying velocities, — rocks, splintered trees, and 

 snow, — in silent flight to plunge into the white 

 bay beneath. No sound was given forth as they 

 fell into, and disappeared beneath, the agitated 

 sea of clouds. How strange this noiseless fall 



96 



