Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-01-19
JOTTINGS FROM THE WEST.

to your work But it sits awful hare
with us here, when you, in old Belmont
go to bed, and we have to stay up anC
work away like slaves for one hour
There is just one hours difference il
time between Republican City, Nebras
ka, and st. Clairsyilfe, Ohio. When
landed here, my watch was just one
hour too fast for the sun at this meridi-
an. will give the readers of your ex'
cellent paper (made doubly so to me, as
am SO far from my native home), some
of the peculiar differences between the
far West and old Belmont county, viz
The wind here always blows gale from
the south or southwest, in dry weather;
and no rain need be looked for, until the
wind changes to the north or northeast
We can pull weeds or grass in the gar
den when the ground is real dry, as easy
as you can in Ohio right after IA good
rain.
We have here, in the West. GEN.
tipedes that are from eight inches to a
foot long, and not a bit thicker than a
common lead pencil. We have a bird
here that is called bull-bat. 1t flies
both night and day; it has white spot
on the middle of the wing; it makes one
noise like the snipes in Ohio, and it also
makes a woful sounding noise, some
what similar to a hearse catamount.
What you in Belmont county call
Christmas-tree, we call wild water-mel-
on here; it grows spontaneously on the
plains; it is what the potato bugs lived
on in crossing the plains, in their march
from Colorado to the Eastern States.
The bugs prefer it to the potato yet.
The soil here is composed of quite a
different material from what the East
ern soil is. Here, the greatest part of
the constituent elements of the soil is a
fine light sand; it is as light as dust; the
wind carries it the same as dust The ma
terial next greatest in the soil, is alkali.
and the balance of it is composed of
clay and kind of ioam; when it gets
wet it will collect on your boots equal
to snow in the Eastern States.
When it rains here, in a few hours the
top of the ground is dry, if the sun
shines, OF if the wind should blow a
brisk gale, which it is sure to do. An
other difference is, that vegetation, as a
rule, has a yellow cast all summer; but
bcn 0f
bit surprised at it-fOr you would not
suppose that a heap of pure sand, or a
pile of magnesia clay would have much
nutriment in it. You can hardly call to
mind flower plant that you cannot lind
growing wild here in the West. There
are no hornets or yellow-jackets heres
and the bumble-bee and the wasp are
not plenty, ,and in some parts of the west
| have not seen any of them. We have
two species of ground-squirrels here
the one is little striped. speckled ami
NAL, and the other large gray animal,
nearly as large as the common gray
squirrel We have the prairie dog, d
little animal somewhat resembling a
young grounding; we also have the
cayot, an animal resembling the gray
fox, but it's habits are those of the wolf
tribe We have an insect here that is
called the buffalo-gnat, from their habit
of collecting on the buffalo's head and
back, almost entirely covering them. In
appearance they resemble the flying
ants. We have five kinds of prairie
grass in this western country: The big
grass, the blue-joint, the slough-grass,
the buffalo-grass, and the little-devil-
buffalo-grass. This species of grass will
wear out your boots, to walk through it,
nearly as fast as to walk through a
stack of files. These grasses furnish all
the pasture and all the hay, as the soil
is too light to sustain the growth of Ell
ther timothy or clover, to auy great ex-
tent. Then, the sun shines so hot here,
that it heats the cows SO hot that it
melts the globules of the butter in the
cows udder, and they mix with the milk
in the process of milking; hence, the
reason we could not make any butter
during the heated term last summer.
1t is nearly sure TO be clondy here when
it is cold, and you seldom feel as blunt a
wind here in the cold season, as you do
in Ohio. The wind here is keener and
sharper, and is much more searching
it has nothing to ObStruct it for such
vast distance. 1t seems to sweep along
with tremendous force, as compared
with its force in less elevated parts of
the globe. 1t goes With force enough
here to drive what cold there is in the
clear through you. Our
snow birds are nearly as large as the
lark, which they resemble in color and
shape, but their breasts resemble the
thrush more than any bird l can think
of at present; but their chattering more
like that of the goldfnch, and they stay
here all the year round; on real hot
day you will find them hid away in
holes, along the banks of the creeks and
draws.
There are many other differences, but
l will only mention one more at this
time, viz: The members of church, here,
are not as precise in their use of words,
as they are where l was brought up. 1t
sounds little odd to hear a person
using those terms that | was taught to
hold too sacred to be used outside of the
pulpit.
The grandest sight, and the greatest
curiosity, have seen since l left old
DOlluOuG COuubys Wdo Glldb VI IdhO MlCu-
igan. To look out on that great sheet
of water just as the sun is rising, and
behold the whole face of the water in a
brilliant, sparkling motion, as the waves
come pitching to the shore; and to see
those waves burst into a brilliant and
spray, when they would roll
out against those dykes that line the
shore in the vicinity of Chicago. Those
are grand sights. indeed, to eyes that
never saw them before.
What is called the Republican valley
country, is all more or less hilly and
broken. though it is prairie country,
with little strip of timber along the
rivers and creeks. The highest hill ]
know of here, is not over $50 feet high
er than the level of the Republican riv-
er. Horace Greeley said, Go West,
young man." Not muchl Better the
slush we have, than the blizzards we