A Snow Storm in Humboldt [pp. 539-543]

A Snow Storm in Hzumboldt.
survey I concluded that other trees
would not touch me in falling, or would
hold, and I would not go.
They kept falling that day and the
next. Thursday night I thought of
changing my bed to a corner of the cabin I deemed safest, but was so weary I
simply swung the head around. I placed
an ax and hatchet under my pillow, that
I might chop myself free if I should be
pinned down. I feared that more than
instant death. No one travels this trail.
It is absolutely impassable. I might lie
and freeze to death, or chill, which is
worse than freezing.
When there is danger I sleep lightly,
no matter how tired I may be. About
midnight I fell into a light slumber, but
was immediately aroused by a big crack.
I bolted upright in bed, waiting with
breathless anxiety. I heard it coming,
noted its increased velocity,- Crack!
Crash! The tree had struck my cabin
with tremendous force, filling it with
snow, and covering me and my bed.
As soon as it settled I tried to strike
a light. I believe I was remarkably cool
under such a strain, and yet it was quite
a little while before I could find the candle, which I had placed within my reach
when I went to bed. I expected to find
my cabin caved in, but I did not. The
fireplace was filled with snow and the
chimney demolished. One window was
forced in by the weight of snow, and a
solid embankment of snow closed the
other. I had buried my fire under ashes
when I went to bed. I found it under
two feet of snow.
All sleep was knocked out of me, but
I went back to my bed, shook off the
snow, crawled in, and took a smoke to
think over my situation. I made up my
mind to leave at daylight, if I lived till
then. But alas for all human calculations,- they "gang aft aglee." This
was scarcely a foretaste of what was to
come.
There was a tree about forty feet from
the cabin, that I had been watching ever
since I have been here. I had surveyed
it from every point, and made up my
mind just where it would fall, if free;
yet one can seldom be sure as to which
way they will draw. It hung like the
"sword of Damocles" over my head.
It swayed back and forth under its heavy
load, sweeping over the entire length of
the cabin. Thursday night I took out
my ax to cut it down, but after a few
blows I thought, "If I fail to make it
draw as I want it to, I shall be left out
in the mountains in a violent storm, with
no shelter and no place to go,"- and so
I left it.
Well, after my smoke, I concluded to
clean.out and rebuild my fireplace, get
breakfast, then, at break of day set out
for Mr. Carney's. At 8 A. M. by my time,
which was fast, for I had not seen the
sun for two weeks, and could not get the
true time, I left my cabin. The snow
was at least three feet deep, and I was
an hour or more getting up the hill. It
is not over five hundred feet, and I can
make the climb in ten minutes easily,
when the ground is bare.
Trees and limbs lay across the trail,
and 1 had to travel where I could. When
I reached the summit, out of the woods
and into the brush, I found the snow
everywhere from four to six feet deep.
I wallowed in it almost helplessly, but
worked my way along, as it was down
hill. To add to the danger of my situation, it began to snow so furiously that
I could not see a landmark. The trail
was entirely obliterated, and in a short
time I was hopelessly lost. I concluded
to give it up and go back to my cabin.
It was like traveling at midnight, or
blindfolded.
It was about I I A. M. when I again
reached my cabin. I took another survey of the tree, with the intention of
felling it, but it was too late. It hung
over the lower gable of my cabin, and
with the increased weight of a foot more
of snow it could not be felled to clear.
The wind swayed it back and forth, and
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[Nov.