Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1875-02-24
The Season.

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, which, we are inclined to buttor
our overcoats close about us as ;
glance at the thermometer assures
us that here the mercury is dowI
to zero, and fond memory look
ing back over dozen days, re
members that the record has beer
from zero to SO degrees below, and
recalls no occasion when during
that time more than 10 degrees
above zero has been Indicated
CHANGING from our window we see
great banks of snow in ell direc-
tions and reflect that during the
: past ten days not less than from II
to Is inches of snow has fallen.
This added to the light falls of the
weeks previous gives us an aggre-
gate fully Up to the average OF
former winters.
Conversiig with lumbermen from
all sections, we learn that in the
woods the snow is so deep as to
impede the cutting and skidding
of logs. This is no great disad.
vantage, however, for the open
and favorable weather proceeding
the middle of January had enabled
the cutting and skidding of nearly
is not quite I'll tho stocks for which
calculation had been made by
operators, to whom tho deep snow
was no impeachment, inasmuch as
ii gave good hauling from the
skids to the banking grounds, and
while perhaps the labor of break
ing roads was increased for a few
days, the later and heavier falls of
snow, being damper than their pre-
decessors, packed better, so that
once broken the roads were all
that the most exacting could desire.
AS result, all tho stock on the
skids will find its way to the
streams. 1t is pretty well deter
mined fact that Notwithstanding
the earnest endeavor to get in stock
proved by the circumstance that
all the men and teams which could
be obtained have been pressed into
the service, there will be q short
age as compared with last year of
the amount cut, while the left over
stock in the streams and mill booms,
will not aggregate more than one
third the amount on hand in the
spring Of 1875. Allowing that the
new cut will come up fully to that
of last year, the shortage in the
quantity of old stock will inevita-
bly, decrease the gross amount by |
at least 20 per cent, allowing that
the new stock all comes down.
But will it Our exchanges and !
personal information from all |
sources agree that the intense cold
weather of the past fortnight, has
not been confined to this locality,
hut that the thermometer has with
a pertinacity seldom equaled in the
memory of the "oldest inhabitant,"
impartially recorded All intensity
of cold in oil sections of the lum-
bering districts of the Northwest,
unrivaled by the experience of
former years. With the mercury
down to %, %, 32, 33 for four sue
cessive days (l60 aggregate a
friend suggests asserts that the
rivers and creeks are frozen to their
very bottoms. OF one creek we
learn, where the ice is four feet
thick, what has become of the
poor fishO and of many others
where the bed of the stream is
frozen. 1t is notorious that the
earth never was as dry as at present
Or the frost deeper. Now the in
evitable conclusion is that when a
thaw comes,-and the morning
changes of the moon do not indi- ,
'ate any such blessing until March
1th at least-the solidity of the 9
ce will permit the main body of !
snow to run off on the
surface of the ice bound streams,
while the thirsty earth will as the ,
rost comes out, inevitably drink in /,
great proportion of what may be /.
eft over from the first thaw or :
reshet, and the logs in the upper :
streams will find a permanent bank
ng ground for the summer. Al /!
'eady are these facts so impressing |,
lealers in lumber in this vicinity.
hat a manifest strengthening of q
aith in the business of the coming a
'eason is preceptible and sh ewd Z
ar-seeing operators predict a re-
urn to former highest rates, as in +