Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-17
ICE AND SNOW.
TIE RECENT FRFEzE-UP AND THAw
OUT IN OREGON.

4
Frozen Rivers Ice Blockade Weather
Bound People Railway Gossip
Making Millions.
PORTLAND (Or. J, January 8, 1850.
We have had an experience that was
not long-hved but very emphatic. A short,
sharp and decisive spell of winter locked
up the upper river and glassed over the
silent waters, and spread mantle of white
over the hills and plains of the whole
northwest To have taken coup dosH of
this frozen region from balloon would
have revealed the world at stand. still,
except that the mingling of sleigh-bells
and the music of swift skates gave unusual
animation. 1t was season when fires
blazed to keep humanity warm and wood
piles lessened in size so rapidly that house
keepers were all anxiety lest the cold
spell would last all winter. 1t was
time when cold Probabilities was no.
where and the old weather breeders came
out in full force as prophetic. These
veterans OF many winters said we might
expect good weather in March, and that
the rivers would close and stay frozen all
| winter. The word was passed round that
we were to fight 1t out on that line until
spring, and people had come to believe the
worst, when 10! the Chinook wind came
and brought rain, and the snow melted
off and left us to begin the new year in
Oregon's normal condition, which is not
dry at this season of the year by any
means.
THE FREEZE UP.
Some of the incidents of the freeze up
will be remembered, among which was the
freezing of water. pipes, and the melting of
snow to secure enough of the fluid for pur-
poses of cooking Nowthe scene is changed,
and we have bursted water pipes, and
miniature floods console us for the fact that
Arcturus left his gates ajar and let the
Borean spirits loose. There was one morn
ing, when the town was enveloped by
frozen mist that was steaming from the
surface of the river, up the streets, pushing
into the stairways OF business edifces,
drapine all it touched with fanciful frost.
work, and turning the bearded pedestrian
to pillar of the same And it was bitter
cold, to degree that cannot be described
with words, but must be felt.
A CHRISTMAS STORY.
So Christmas dawned upon us, and all
the world was rejoicing, and the jolliest
portion of it was wrapped up warmly and
shooting about under the stars TO the music
of sleigh-bells Little they cared for the
sorrows of others; yet scarce any could be
so hard-hearted as to refuse tear for the
sad tale | have to tell. 1t seems that the
night before Christmas an industrious
man, who worked at furniture establish
ment here in Portland, but whose home
was over on Sandy, 25 miles away, made
Christmas purchases for his wife and chill
dren and started homeward afoot. 1t was
long walk but he thought it would be more
comfortable to walk and keep warm. He did |
not reach home and the next morning was
found, with all his Christmas gifts upon
him, lying dead in the snow within two
miles of his home and the waiting ones.
What a sad Christmas that must have |
been. He probably undertook to go
through the woods the nearest way and |
gov 1OSI anu 81 ptilSIltu ie oSilS-
thing sadly pathetic at such a death, |
such a desolation as must have come over |
the household so suddenly and so terribly |
bereaved. But the father died with Christ
mas in his heart, and there must be a |
pleasing remembrance in their hearts of |
one whose last act was thought and deed |
of holiday kindness for those who waited |
for him at home.
THE BLOCKADE.
Though we have had warm rains for a
week, and pouring floods part of the time,
the Columbia river remains closed ten
miles below the Cascades. Yesterday |
steamer went up and took a look |
at the impeachment to navigation |
and turned about and came back agar. |
The commerce of the upper Columbia has |
come to stand-still. At the Dalles over
hundred persons were caught by the |
blockade and remained ice bound as per- |
manent boarders The mercury went !
down below zero, and the population of |
the whole upper region had hard work to !
keep warm, and the shivering stock had |
hard work of it to keep alive. When the |
roll-cau is had in the spring the focks and |
herds will count largely among the dead |
and missing The mail came through |
from the Dalles at last, after quite a sus
pension, being brought down over the
river trail. There is a wagon road down
as far as the Cascades, but below there is |
only trail Probably there is no other
river of its Importance that is so hermeti-
caily closed as the Columbia when we have
q severe winter. The Sierras are impassa-
bic and the Columbia has dug its way
through for seventy miles, leaving no
shores, and no country, to speak of, for
that distance, though there are occasiona
hooks and corners and places where mount
ain streams debouch, that have tempted
some lover of nature and solitude to start
woodward with adjoining garden spot.
DOWN THE FROZEN RIVER.
Once upon time, when [ was younger
and didn't stand for trifes, l was caught
at the Dalles, after a long journey on
snow shoes, and determined to come
home, | Joined few who adventured to
make the passage afoot down the river
surface. Sometimes open water forced us
to take the trail, and otherwise we pushed
on all day through sleet and snow, or
whatever weather came, the hundred miles
to the mouth OF Sandy. 1t was Journey
to remember, and when am more gray
headed than l am now L may find
chimney corner to tell it in. Winter had
draped the mountains with fan
tastc frost-work where streams
poured over precipices were frozen
cascades. CONCEALED in shapes that showed
the persistent efforts made by the escaping
water. We climbed one ridge where we
chopped footsteps in the steep hill side to
venture over hill of difficulty that deer
had tried to maintain footingupon and failed,
for we found it dead at the foot of the
ridge. 1t was a journey fully as won
derful as it was tiresome, and the wintry
aspect of frozen Columbia is not less-but
is far more majestic and awe-inspiring than
the tame look that wild region wears when
spring and summer daily with its wildness,
and hide much of it with their abundant
foliage.
THE COMING RAILROAD.
The new Railway and Transportation
Company talk of building a railroad down |