Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1881-03-23
WINTER IN THE WEST.
now THE PEOPLE AND FARMING HAVE
sUFFERED-FoUR HUNDRED THOU.
SAND HEAD OF CATTLE LOST.

| HOW THE PEOPLE AND FARMING HAVE
sUFFERED-FoUR HUNDRED THOU.
SAND HEAD OF CATTLE LOST.
The Winter now drawing TO u close
will not soon be forgotten in the North.
western States and Territories. The
oldest inhabitant recalls nothing like
it, and it will probably serve for many
years to come as q frightful example Of
the severity of the climate. Through.
out Minnesota and Dakota there has
been an almost unbroken snow block.
ade for three months, and the stories
told by travellers OF the size of the drifts
in those States are quite beyond the con-
ception of people living in less wintry
climes.
A correspondent at Chicago reviews
some Of the disastrous features of the
Winter as follows:
The interruption to business and the
vast amount of money expended ia
truitless endeavors to keep their lines
open have made the season everything
but n profitable one TO the railway
companies. In some of the cuts in
Wisconsin the snow has been packed
to a depth Of thirty .fect, and in Min
nesota, depots, freight houses, and in
several instances trains of cars on side
tracks have been literally buried.
Nearly all the remote villages of the
frontier have been supplied with pro.
visions, but IN many OF them fuel has
been exceedingly scarce, and prices
have reached fabulous figures, At
some points in Dakota the settlers
were threatening to tear up the rail
road tracks and burn the ties--a task
easier to contemplate than to execute.
Men who have been through the far
Northwestern territories and know
the country well, express the belief
that when Spring shall have opened up
that country will be found to be yer.
table Golgotha. They argue that
isolated settlements mast have been
buried in the avalanches ofsnow which
have fallen, and that numerous in.
stances will be found where the hapless
pioneers, having been unable to reach
places of safety, have pershed
A representative of the Times, who
has Just returned from tour through
the cattle ranges lying between the
Missouri river and the Rocky Mount.
aims, repl Is that the Winter in that
section has been the severest ever ex.
perienced, and that the loss of cattle
will exceed 100000 head, valued at
from sS,00O,0OO to s10,OOOO0O. The
poor brutes have died in myriads,
whole herds have been wiped out in
night. He says Tho death rate
among the cattle in that tract, which
embraced within lines extending north
and south through Sydney and North
Platte, towns on the Union Pacific
Railroad, in Nebraska, 1876 miles apart,
is, in all probability, larger than any
where in the entire grazing country.
Tho cattle men have designated this
and the dry belt in Colorado as the
"burnt districts" The Nebraska burnt
district is 200 miles one way by 125
miles across on the south, and 175 on
the north. There is an immense mum.
ber Of cattle in this area-a half million
or more. There is q succession of
mammoth herds on the North Platte,
Loup and Niobrara rivers, and the
morality among them is believed to be
between 25 and 40 per cent, accord.
ing to location. West of the Black
Hills stage route from Sidney the loss
will not be great, but east of that line
they have died by thousands. On the
Niobrara ranges, east of Antelope creek,
owners themselves admit loss of 80
per cent, and south of that there is
bovine cemetery until the Platte is
crossed.
The great loss in this particular re-
gion is due to the heavy snow storms,
which were preceded by sleet and rain
that converted the earths surface into
q sheet of ice. Even had there been
no snow the cattle could not have got.
ten at the grass, which was under
coat of ice, but the snow aggravated
the trouble somewhat, and fer weeks
the cattle endured the horrible torture
of slow starvation. Thousands upon
thousands drifted down upon the South
Platte after grass and water, but, as
the river was frozen, they could get
neither
Therecent heavy snow storms which
visited Eastern Nebraska and the
Northwest did not trouble the burned
district, kindly vcering off in another
direction, and 80 there is prospect of
brighter days, Thousands of dead
cattle cover the ground between Sid.
ney and North Platte within sight of
the railroad track. Many of them have
been killed by the cars, but by tar the
larger number died Of cold and starva-
tion. They were missed between the
two forks of the Platte which come
together at North Platte, and the suf-
fering of the poor brutes is said by
those who saw them to have been
frightful. They filled the air with their
cries of agony, and wandered about un.
i'll 80 weak that when they laid down
to rest they could not get up again.
Nothing could be done for their relief
1t would have been hopeless task to
have tried TO feed them. A thousand
tons Of hay would not have gone around.
Tho poor things, overcome by the cold,
could not be driven back on the snowy
ranges. They resisted force by sullen
refusal to bulge, preferring to remain
where they were and die than to move
They dovoured every vestigc of grass
that could be seen, and even chewed
the hair on their tails. The scenes that
we're witnessed by the settlers are de.
scribed as heartrending.
The losses in other districts, while
not so heavy, are very severe. Over.
production is one cause OF the calamity
which has been visited upon the cattle
interest the resources Of the country
having for years been taxed TO the ut
most by the enormous herds which
have roamed over the plains and IN
the foothills.
MIDWTNTER MALARIA.