SNOW-SLIDES AND AVALANCHES— THEIR FORMA- 
TION AND PREVENTION. 

By Bb. E. FERNOoW. 
The question of protection against the disastrous effects of snow- 
slides and avalanches has been an important one for centuries in Switz- 
erland, where it seems that not only special conditions favorable to 
their formation exist, but where, on account of the dense settlement of 
the mountainous region exposed to their course, their destructive effects 
are more intensely felt. So regularly, from period to period or year to 
year, do these avalanciies occur in given localities, pursuing the same 
track down the mountain sides, that they have their names like the 
mountains themselves, or like the geysers, which may go off at any 
time, pouring forth their waters at irregular periods. 
Note.—The dictionaries and encyclopedias do not seem to know the word ‘‘ snow- 
slide,” which is the term used in the Rocky Mountain region. The word ‘‘snow- 
slip” is used to denote ‘‘a large mass of snow, which slips down the side of a 
mountain and sometimes buries houses” (/Vebster), while ‘‘ avalanche” is defined as 
a ‘large mass of snow, earth, and ice sliding or rolling down a mountain ” (JVebster), 
‘or falling down a precipice ” (Ogilvie). (To avale—to fall, descend, be lowered, old 
French aval—towards the valley.) There exists, therefore, no definite distinct idea 
that might belong to.the one word or the other exclusively, and the words, have there- 
fore been used as synonyms. 
The guestion of the formation, dangers, and preventives of ava- 
lanches forms the subject-matter of a very interesting volume published 
at the instance of the Swiss agricultural department, in 1851, by I. 
Coaz, the general forest inspector of the Republic, whose personal 
observations and experiences for many years in the work of abating 
these dangers deserve special attention. While the conditions, atmos- 
pheric and geologic, of our Rocky Mountain region may not coincide 
or compare exactly with those prevailing in the Alps, yet a study of 
the causes and effects there observed through a long series of years 
and of the methods there employed to remove the causes and alleviate 
the effects of these dangers of mountain life may suggest a closer ob- 
servation of our own conditions and the invention of expedients of 
protection better suited to our own needs. The accounts given on 
another page of this bulletiv show that the phenomenon of avalanches 
g°7Pr 
ZOU 


