A SECTION OF THE LOG JAM CREATED BY THE GREAT SLIDE SHOWN IN 



CUT NO. 5. 



end among the granite boulders. One 

 could easily fancy among these various 

 formations images of people, of wild ani- 

 mals, of locomotives, of bogy men and 

 other weird and mysterious forms. 



On still another day, when waiting on 

 my favorite slide for a grizzly to come 

 to lunch, I heard a roar from the moun- 

 tain top back of me. I rushed out from 

 my bed of boughs to locate the slide, and, 

 to my horror, saw it coming down 

 the gulch on the bank of which I stood. I 

 caught up my rifle and started to run, but 

 then I realized that the only safer place 

 than that on which I stood was immedi- 

 ately to the South of me and up an al- 

 most perpendicular bank. This was cov- 

 ered with alders, mountain maples, wild 

 cherry and other underbrush which had 

 been mashed down time and again by the 

 moving snows, and which was tangled and 

 interlaced to such a degree that a man 

 could not travel more than half a mile an 

 hour through it if he did his best. By the 

 time I realized this the gulch behind me 

 was full of the moving mass of snow, ice 

 and rocks, and the roar which it gave 

 forth was of the same appalling nature I 

 have already mentioned. The moving col- 

 umn was piled 20 feet high within 30 

 feet of where I stood. I said to my- 

 self, there is no use trying to escape. 



The slide will probably not spread out any 

 more, and I may as well make its acquaint- 

 ance at short range while I can. 



I stood my ground, and within 3 min- 

 utes of the time the first alarm came the 

 column had stopped moving and I was 

 safe. I have been face to face with death 

 several times, but I was never worse 

 shaken with fright and terror than in those 

 few seconds. Yet I was happy, for I had 

 been next to a great snow slide while it 

 was in motion. It is one of the events of 

 my life that I shall never forget. 



Of course these slides are dangerous, 

 not only to people, but to wild animals. 

 Still, if a man will exercise proper care, 

 he need never be caught in one. The trou- 

 ble is that miners, hunters and packers 

 who associate with slides all through the 

 spring and summer, grow careless and 

 occasionally a man or a party of men is 

 caught in a slide and buried alive. 



While we were camped in this canyon a 

 snow slide came down in another part of 

 the Selkirk range that caught a pack out- 

 fit of 2 men and 16 horses. One of the 

 men escaped, but the other man and all the 

 horses were buried under 50 feet of snow 

 and debris,. 



A few days later another slide, near 

 Nelson, caught 4 men and 20 mules. One 

 of the men and all the mules were killed* 



344 



