Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-12
waIIa.WnIla wind and the Chinook.

} Washington diSpatch 10 Inc Boston AdVertlSer.l
One OF the most curious and interest
ing features OF the report Of Governor
/ Semple, of Washington Territory. to the
/ Secretary of the Interior, just printed, is
/ the bit OF tradition and rhetoric which
he weaves about a zephyr through the
mountains.
1.-The east wind, he says, "the dry
ing or chilling wind, according to the
season, that blows down the Colu mbia
river with great force sometimes, was
called by them the Walla-Walla wind,
because it came to them from the di-
rection OF the Walla-Walla coun-
try. In the winter this wind
brings freezing weather and some
times will close the streams with ice. In
the summer it is a parching wind. and
its approach can be noted for long dis
tances as it hits the dust and Debris
high in the air. 1t is an odious wind,
and no one wishes it to blow upon him.
Fortunately its reign is always short. 1t
rarely prevails for more than few
hours, but will sometimes continue for
three or four days.
It's enemy is the Chinook wind, 80
called by the Indians alluded to above,
because it came to them from the direc-
ton of the country Of the Chinooks.
This is balmy wind coming from the
Kuro, Siwo, or great Japanese current
of the Pacific Ocean. In the summer it
is cool wind, and tempers the heat
Of summer so that nowhere in Wash
ington Territory do people fall down
with sunstrokes. In the winter it
is q warm, moist wind, and is sometimes
slightly odoriferous, as if spice-laden
from the tropics. 1t is so gentle upon
ordinary occasions that its presence could
not be noted by its motion, and it is
almost miraculous in its effect Snow
and ice disappear before it with rapidity,
and it seems to be able to blow for long
distances between walls of colder air
without parting with its heat. Some
times it constitutes an upper current,
in which case the remarkable spec
tacle is witnessed of the snow melting
from the mountain tops while thermome-
tiers in the valleys register below the
freezing point At other times it is the
surface current, and follows the valleys
and gorges as a flood might follow them.
1t seems to bear healing upon its wings,
like Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer,
and it is not difficult to conceive that the
Indians would wish TO personify it, in
order to fix upon it their devotions.
"This wind sometimes penetrates as
far as the upper stretches of the Missou-
II, and even tempers the air on the plains
of Dakota beyond the Rocky mountains.
Wherever it goes the chains of winter
are Embossed and the ice-bound rivers are
set free. The Chinook is the natural
enemy of the Odious east wind, and
while ordinarily it Yields its influence
as gently as the zephyrs that watt the
thistle-downs in autumn, still there are
times when the two winds engage in giant
conflicts and fight for supremacy, now in
the upper, then in the lower strata, on
the mountains and in the valleys, alter
nately driving each other back and forth,
swaying the trees, tossing the leaves and
swirlihg the raindrops or the crystals OF
snow as the ono or the other advances.
But the combat is never long and the
victory is always with the Chinook. The
inhabitants east OF the Cascade noun
tains, when winter has seized them and
the east wind dashes snow in their
faces, pray for the Chinook to come.
They look by day for its moist front and
listen by night for the noise of its COM
bat with the east wind, and when it
reaches them they rejoice.
"Such is the Chinook wind, the bless
ed wind of the far Northwest"