DEATH may come in many colours. The nemesis of Prince Prospero in Poe's surrealistic story, for example, came in crimson: "He had come like a thief in the night, and one by one dropped the revellers in the blood bedewed halls of their revel, and each died in the despairing posture of his fall. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all".
In medieval times, the leveller was the Black Death, the dreaded bubonic plague that decimated the populations of Europe in the middle of the 14th century.
And in more recent times, while claiming its victims in much smaller numbers, the White Death has proved as difficult to conquer as any of its predecessors: its annual harvest in the 1990s has been four or five times that of 40 years ago.
The White Death is the name given to an avalanche in parts of France and Switzerland. There are 120 deaths annually in the region from this cause, and 200 world wide every year, with the numbers rising steadily as winter sports become more popular.
For those unfortunate enough to be buried deep beneath a layer of snow, lack of air kills long before the cold takes serious effect: either the victim quickly exhausts all the air available in the vicinity, or external pressure inhibits the mechanical ability to breathe.
Statistics indicate a 90 per cent chance of survival if victims are found within 15 minutes of being covered. Over the next 20 minutes the chances of survival fall to 30 per cent, and only one in 10 of those buried for an hour or more survives.
Time is therefore of the essence for survival. The traditional method of locating victims of an avalanche is by the use of prodding poles pushed down in likely locations until something hard is felt.
More recently, electronic beacons are sometimes carried by skiers, so that a radio signal will guide searchers in the right direction.
And strangely enough, even nowadays it is found that the most efficient aids are sniffer dogs, who proceed unerringly and with little hesitation to their human destination.
It is better still, of course, if there is a chance of an encounter with an avalanche, to try to eliminate altogether the risk of being buried underneath the snow.
A device currently under trial towards this end comprises a large air bag operated by a rip cord: when a skier is in difficulties, a pull on the cord inflates the bag, so that the skier tends to float upon the surface of the sliding snow, and the risk of being buried deep below is very much reduced.