The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-02

Rocky Mountain Moteorology-An Inn
portant Problem To BE Solved.
The Weather Bureau has recently occupied
the lofty summit Of Pixies Peck for its pur-
poses of weather telegraphy. This eminence-
fourteen thousand two hundred and sixteen
feet above the oceans an admirable post for
the meteorological sentries, as well by reason
of its location as Of its altitude. One of the
most important problems of weather science
now is to ascertain how far land masses pro-
rating the great storm centres. Mount Wash
ington, looking out on the sea, might finely
subservs the study of this interesting subject,
but that any influence or agency it may exert
in producing storms is hard to detect since
every storm near by quickly disappears to the
eastward and is heard of only out on the
Atlantic. But Pixies Peak, rising in the
middle of the Continent and lying in the
great belt Of westerly winds, must with
q little observation, make its agency clearly
felt and perceived by the observers of the
Signal Service stationed upon it
The specific problem to which we refer wiz,
how far mountainous masses or peaks are to
be considered as storm breeders) is exceed
ingly important to all the future settlers of the
Becky Mountain States and Territories It is
known to mariners rounding Cape Horn that
the icy, projecting points of Patagonia and
Terra del Fuego, as they arrest the vapor-laden
westerly winds. rapidly condense them, and
thus originate the furious and continuous
gales that rage off that promontory. True re-
volving gales are there formed and sweep with
such enormous speed to the eastward that
clipper ship (the Sovereign Of the
Seas, in March, 1859 has been known to
run upon one Of them for 4, sos nautical miles
in sixteen days, during the first twelve Of
which she averaged 81 l miles day, and on one
day actually made All miles. Although it has
been sometimes said ''the storm is the child
Of the ocean," the real agent in originating
these gales is undoubtedly the frigid land
mass, which suddenly squeezes ont Of the at
mosphere the drenching and torrential rains,
and thus begets the low barometer. Over the
entire latitude of California and Oregon SINH
lar wind phenomena prevail as in the Pata-
gonian ATTITUDES. Northwesterly and westerly
winds, freighted and surcharged with vapor
from the North Pacific, sift through the passes
Of the Rocky Mountains, and as they encoun-
ter the mighty ice-sheeted pyramids like
Pixies Peak they are rapidly condensed, and
thus the nuclei of storms and snow tempests
are formed.
To clear up the philosophy of the Rocky
Mountain storms has been the ambition of
many eminent American and European
scientific travellers. Undoubtedly it will be
found that, among these lofty 'pinnacles of
cold subimity," the storm king has his great
laboratories, in which he manufactures the
weather for the Mississippi Valley and the
eastern side Of our Continent The Rocky
Mountain country, while often rising 80
gradually that the traveller percAiyes his ascent
only by the fall of the mercury "a his Their
mometer, is lined by many rampart-like
ridges, pursuing the direction north of west
and sotwA of east, and presenting their aIial
fronts to the prevailing vapor-bearing winds
It would seem very clear therefore, that, by
investigating the law of the Rocky Mountain
storms, the information would guide the settler
in the selection Of the best watered lands and
the localities best suited for mining, pas
turage and tillage. As this subject lies at the
bottom of our whole continental meteorology
it ought to be fully investigated.
The STATE OF Morocco. picture given
in another column of the social and politi-
cal life of the Moorish Empire cannot fail
to interest our readers. Situated within
sight Of Europe, and inhabited by race
of men once foremost in the arts of
civilized life, Morocco is, perhaps, less known
to the outer world than the interior of bar
barous Africa. The jealousy and fanaticism
of the inhabitants have cut off their country
from intercourse with Christendom, and little
is known of their social habits or political
organizations by the general public Among
people so little disposed to adm. foreigners
into their confidence the scops and Usefulness