St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1871-02-24
LcffCI' Ii'Om the Tjp-7Op.

\ letter from one of the scientific par
~ on Mount Washington has these in
tcrcStm@ mcnuranIa: The greatest We
lociiy of the wind probably exceeds 4
hundr d miles an hour, though the great
est measured has been niuety-two. Gains
are very rare and of short duration. They
occur only when the wind is on the point
of changing. Vt times the changes are
very sudden; the wind may be south
cas-, and III an hour there viii be stiff
brccz- from the northwest, which soon
increases il 4 gale. This change of the
winI from point to that directly oppo-
site is not uncommon. The prevailing
wind has been northwest, and the NEST
violent winds have thus far come from
that direction, or Il few points farther
north. ~ the sidc of the house presents
4 surface of more than six hundred square
feet, the pleasure Of the wind, when il
reaches lis greatest velocity, Is trem en-
dou>, especially when il comes in heavy
@u-t>: it puts the house to the scvcrcst
test. After time of light wind, when
the building Is full Of frost and the Joints
are frozen, Il heavy wind loosens the
ioiuts with a report that is startling So
sharp that, until we become accustomed
to it, we can hardly believe but that the
house is coming down over our heads.
These reports, with the almost constant
roar Of the wind, are trying TO weak
nerves, and even if Il person has consid-
cradle couragc it Is sometimes difficult TO
he perfectly cool, particularly when the
Thermometer gc.s bclow-iO, as the
chanccc OF escap> are very small should
the house be crushed. But in general it
only furnishes excitement enough TO keep
off the cnnui incident 10 an isolated life
Nothing has surprised me more than the
fierce winds we have when it is perfectly
clear. We expect them when there are
CLOUDS on the mountain, but we have had
the wind more than eighty miles per hour
when there was not a single cloud above
the summit. The wind at such times is
rarely Il steady pressure rs it is during :.
period ot storm. No war of the clements
is 80 rcmaI kablc as when these invisible
elements rage with fury around this high
summit on clear, cold moonlight night
i'll miI-wintcr. At such times the SKY
is intensely blue, the moon looks coldly
down and the stars shine as nowhere else,
except at high attitudes and in northern
ATTITUDES. Beside the roar of the wind
and the crcaling OF the house, the wind
SrpIuS IN he tr\iuu lis utmost tn draw tLo
Goals upward through the stoye-pipe, for
it tugs AID pulls and jerks, and now, as
if gathering AL lis force, it gives one long,
steady pull, but the Goals are too heavy
Tor it. With light wood it would Ger
family succeed, if not in taking the wood
away, at lcas; in taking every spark of
lirC-for this WAS done several times lur-
ing my stay on Moosailaukc. Now the
sound is ioarsc, lc;lening roar, that
dies away into Il plajntive moan now it
scrccchos and bowls as though all the
wit hes of Macbeth were therein coniin-
ed, but in an instant the sound ceases,
only, however, TO he rcncac by others
so wciId and strange, that one almost be-
licvcs i!Iat the ghosts OF the aburioincs.
who are guilty Of having ;.sccn,lcd where
only the l,chens grow, still hover about
the summit; for they had tradition
that such wonld never reach the hunting
ground beyond the sunset, but must wan
der forever around the mountain they had
dared profane.