River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-11-25
LONGER MINTERS.
y singular meteorological Change liza
the Sierras
Virginia city Enterprise


Prof. Legate has Just returned from
a trip into the Sierras of eight days du-
ration. He had with him two assist
ants and his own vehicle for the trans
portation of his instruments, and
camped out most of the time. The OBJ
iect Of the professors trip was the study
of recent meteorological changes in
the elevated regions of the Sierras. He
was led to believe that during tho pres
ent season the warm belt had shifted
south. Beginning nj a point just north
of Lake Tahoe, the snow had not melt
ed away as in former years. There are
now banks of snow from fifty to one
hundred feet in depth at points whore
, before at this season no snow has lain.
Nearly the whole OF this snow Will re-
main where it now lies until the SHOWS
of winter again set in. Up toward the
headquarters of the north fork Of the
Yuba river, where no snow Is usually
seen at this season, it has but little
more than begun to disappear. In that
place are to be seen huge banks OF
snow, under which flow the waters OF
the stream. forming arches or natural
bridges 100 feet in height and 200 to 800
feet in width As nearly the whole Ga
this snow will remain until snow again
comes, the accumulation next year
will be still greater, and the whole re-
gion around the head of that and other
rivers high in the mountains will prob
ably lie under the snow the year round.
1t was for the purpose ofascertaining
the cause of this remarkable change of
ak, To 10 hl Il sPnf
Legate went on his expedition into the
mountains Through the results OBJ
| tanned by observations made at many
points with various delicate instruments,
but principally by means of careful
thermometrical tests, the professor has
established the fact that there has oc-
CURED in the range of the Sierra Neva-
da mountains this season grand
isthermal change He finds that the
warm current of air which ever since
the settlement of California by Ameri-
cans-and probably ages before
moved upward from the Pacific sea
board to the Sierra Nevada mountains,
and thence turned and flowed to the
northward along the west side of the
main ridge of the range, thus giving tc
all regions in that direction a warm eli
mate, no longer moves in that direc-
| ton 1t now comes from the side oI
the ocean and pours eastward directly
across the crest of the Sierras near LakF
| Tahoe.
Prof. Legate has satisfied hiInselt
that this wonderful change, which Is
leaving all the northern parts of the 81
erras buried in snow, summer and win.
ter, is caused 10y the denudation o.
timber which the mountains have suf
fered through a belt beginning at Lake
| Tahoe and extending some twenty
miles southwark. Through the gaI
thus left by the sweeping away of the
| forest now flows the warm current O
air which form erly moyed-with some
thing of the circling motion Of water
in al eddy-far along the mountain,
to The northward. Prof. Legatc says il
must not be supposed that the change
| has been caused merely on account Of
the gap or trough left by the clearing
away Of the forests. The denudatiou
of the ground is the principal cause
| The heat # the sun pouring down upon
the broad belt Of bare ground now
reaching across the mountains causes
! at that point an immense ascending
column of heated air which draws il
from the west the heated current which
formerly moved to the northward, and
now all crosses the Sierras, passing il
an upward and eastward direction,
Prof Legate is of the opinion that
the only thing capable of changing thC
isothermal line which has beer recent
ly accidentally and disastrously estab
lished, is the creation, at some poin
well north, of another broad belt of de
mutation, the influence of which viii
be to draw in that direction portion
of the warm current of air moving W
to and along the western slope of tn,
Sierras, and thus partly restore tn,
equable temperature that formerly pre-
vailed He thinks the railroad which
is to run in the direction of Oregon
from Reno. and which is to strike ans
tap the great pine forests of the Sicrra
W. u to the north, will after a few year
effect the desired change.