





























83 
they can use. Again, it is the common practice to use the butts or 
larger portions of the trees for sawlogs, while the limbs and smaller 
parts of the trunk are left to waste and to furnish food for forest fires. 
In districts where large-sized trees abound it is not unusual, on the 
other hand, for tie choppers to cut ties from the upper and smaller por- 
tions only, and leave the butts on the ground to decay. 
Any laws or customs which allow the cutting of trees and the utili- 
zation of a portion only, or permit the cutting of partly-grown trees 
(except in forest reserves or plantations, for necessary thinning) are 
pernicious, as authorizing wasteful and improvident methods. 
SNOW AND LAND SLIDES. 
Snow-slides are frequent in the Rocky Mountain region, more espe- 
cially among the higher Colorado ranges. They usually occur in the 
late winter and early spring months, when heavy falls of snow are sue- 
ceeded by sunshine, causing the partial melting of the snow, and giving 
it also great weight. The slides or avalanches destroy both life and 
property. In some instances entire mining camps have been engulfed. 
Slides often start near the crests of the mountains, above the timber 
line, and gaining momentum as they descend, carry every thing before 
them. Large trees are swept away, rocks of many tons weight are 
torn from their beds, and human beings who are in their path are en. 
tombed in the snow, which packs like ice, yielding only to the axe and 
pick. Again, the impacted snow, after reaching the bottom of a deep 
gulch, will be forced sometimes far up the opposite side, carrying with 
it buildings, people, and whatever may be in its way. 
Land-slides, though not frequent, some times occur. Through the 
action of frost, melting snows, or rain-fall—or all combined—masses of 
earth and rock are precipitated down the mountain side, overwhelming 
all beneath. To a beholder, the mass, with its accompanying roar, 
smoke, and fire, would seem to have evoked the lightnings and thunder 
to aid it in its destructive course. The path of the slide is usually 
marked by a strip of naked rock—of greater or less breadth—called, in 
mountain parlance, a “ gouge,” and upon which soil or vegetation is 
not likely to appear again. What means, if any, can be devised for 
the prevention of these disasters it is hard to say. Stripping the tim- 
ber from the slopes, if not an original cause, contributes largely to the 
evil effect. Land-slides would hardly be possible in localities where the 
soil is sustained by the interlacing roots of a vigorous forest growth. 
It has been stated that in some of the Alpine regions stakes are driven 
upon the upper slopes of bare mountains to prevent the inception of 
snow-slides. Such a plan would hardly be feasible here, as the higher 
slopes of our mountains present steep and rocky surfaces of immense 
area. 
Notr.—It is a well-known fact that in Europe, not only torrents but land-slides as 
well as snow-slides are induced and aggravated by the removal of the forest cover, 
oH 

