The New York herald., 1872-12-20

The Approaching Great Cold from the
HortAwest snA Its Climatso sigai6-
cance.
The most intense cold of the Winter, ac-
cording to the Signal Service reports, pre-
vailed on Wednesday in the Northwest.
wedging its way eastward. At Pembina. the
most northern frontier town Of the United
States, lying ON the Red River and in tho very
line of the great polar winds. the depression
of the Thermometer had reached the extreme
figure of twenty-nine degrees (below zero).
while at Breckenridge, two hundred miles
southeastward, it was twenty-eight degrees
(below zero). The Arctic regions seem to
have dispensed some of their bitterness and
rigor to the narrow belt of country lying west
of the Lakes. The thermometric gradient
from the Southern States to the far Northwest
was exceedingly steep, showing o descent in
the mercury of over ninety degrees Fahren-
heit, or nearly one degree for every fifteen
miles, The prelude to this cold wave-which
is now advancing towards the Atlantic sea-
board consisted of an immense snow.
storm which suddenly spread it's hoay
mantle over the whole country from the
Lakes to the Ohio River and over the Middle
and Eastern States, accompanied by danger
ous northeasters on our seacoast- We have,
however, experienced as yet only the front
of this great aerial inundntion from the Pacific
coast and the higher latitudes and may be pre-
monished of intensely frosty and rigorous
.,s;i,, for the next two c. three days. It is
very curious fact, wnis:: appears IL sl s:sss
violent thermometric changes Of American
Winters, that, while the advancing cold, when
first reported from the Northwest, is attended
with but comparatively little snow In that Sec
ton lying west of Lake Superior, it produces
heavy precipitation only after it has progressed
east Of the Upper Mississippi and reached the
slopes Of the AIleghanies. Moving eastward
from the Pacific coast the wave, at first sur
charged with oceanic vapor and warmth,
moderates and tempers the Winter climates in
the regions over which it rolls, and.
even when it condenses on the cold
elevations of the mountains, iberates its
immense stores of latent heat; and in the ex-
treme Northwestern sections, as on Wednes-
day, at Montana, thermometers are high.
Passing, however, to Dakota and Minnesota,
we find that the air-mass, by the time it has
reached these sections, is dry and intensely
cold, and the temperatures suddenly fall to
almost polar severity. It has often been OBJ
served by Italian travellers that sometimes
when on the Alps the snow and rain are fall
ing heavily, ''the waveless plains Of Lom-
hardy beneath are overhung by blue and
cloudless skies. On the coast of Ireland the
Kerry Mountains rob the warm and vaporous
southwest winds from the Atlantic of their
moisture, to which the charming Irish lakes
are indebted for their supply Of water and
Killarney for its famed and luxuriant verdure
but after passing short distance beyond the
mountains the same wind is chilled and rain
robbed and its downpour reduced from sixty
to twenty inches Of water per annum. The
operation Of the Physical law which brings
about these phenomena =: s highly highly :..roTiant IN
America and especially in the great North
west whose Winter meteorology is matter Of
public interest.
The present Winter fairly illustrates the sub.
ject and shows succession Of alternate zones,
spread acrossshe country from shore to shore.
Thus from the Pacific to the meridian of one
hundred and ton degrees west, between the
fortieth and sixtieth parallels, is q region OF
Winter climate much warmer and more humid
than that due to latitude From the one hun
dred and tenth meridian of west longitude to
the ninetieth, and between the same parallels
as before, is zone Of intense, but dry, cold
Winter, comparatively snowless, except on the
shores Of the lakes; and the isothermals main
tain, all the way to the Atlantic, the shape Of
waving or zigzag lines. Nothing could better
illuminate the much discussed snow problem
which affects the practical success of the pro-
posed Canadian Pacific Railroad and also that
Of the Northern Pacific. From the meridian
Of Duluth to that Of Fort Benton they must
encounter, at given intervals during the Win.
ter, intense cold, but they will practically es-
cape oil heavy SHOWS on the larger part of the
country they traverse.
As we have said before, the winds from the
Northwest threaten Us with an immediate in
vasion of Winters biting blast and icy seal,
and the sooner we prepare for it the better.
Congregational Investigations-An Out.
rage ON tho Liberty Of tho Citizen.
We protest against the further prosecution
OF the investigation, as it is humorously called,
now going on at Washington into the conduct
of certain members Of Congress in the matter
of few thousand shares in the Credit Mo.
bilier of the Union Pacific Railroad. BY what
right, we should like to know, does any one
undertake to pry into the private financial
transactions Of Independent citizens just be.
cause they happen to give their services to the