Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-04-20
1ryE chinook WIND.
,,,.x.sd zephyr of the Nor,h,oest That
n.a,s heating Upon It's Wtn0s.

,,,.xs.d Zephyr ofthe NOrth,oest That
~ ,eors ifeatiny Upon It's Wings.
n,a OF the most curious and interest
teatures of the report of Gov.
,,nle of Washington Territory, to
.na secretary of the Interior, is the
~. Of tradition and rhetoric which
weaves about zephyr through the
~Tbe east wind" he says, "the dry
;,r or chilling wind, according to the
>nson that blows down the Columbia
r;vsr with great force sometimes, was
.a1led by the Indians the Walla Walla
;,1 because it came to them from the
.1recsion of the Walla Walla country.
IN tbe winter this wind brings freezing
r,atber and sometimes will close the
,.raams with ice. In the summer it is
q paschel wind, and its approach can
,,s noted for long distances as it lifts
t,s dust and debris high in the air. It
&c an odious wind, and no one wishes it
10 blow upon him. Fortunately, its
,e;rn is always short. 1t rarely pre-
xols more than few hours, but will
+sometimes continue for three or four
days.
Its enemy is the Chinook wind, so
called by the Indians alluded to above,
b.cause it came to them from the d.
recsion 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
1 It is cool wind, and tempers the heat
I of summer so that nowhere in Wash
jpgton Territory do people fall down
with sunstrokes. In the winter it is
warm, moist wind, and is sometimes
slightly odoriferous. as if spice-laden
from the tropics. It is so gentle upon
ordinary occasions that its presence
coald not be noted by its motion, and
h is almost miraculous in its effects.
Snow and ice disappear before it with
bapiditv, and it seems to be able to
blow for long distances between walls
of colder air without parting with it's
neat. Sometimes it constitutes an up
per current, in which case the remark
,b!e spectacleois witnessed of the snow
melting from the mountain tops while
the thermometers in the village regis.
teys below the freezing point. At other
ines it is the surface current, and fol-
ows the valleys and gorges as flood
MIGHT follow them. 1t seems to bear
healing upon its wings, like Sandal
hon, the Angel of Prayer, and it is
hot difficult to conceive that the In
ans would wish to personify it, in or
fer TO fix upon it their devotions.
This wind sometimes penetrates as
ar as the upper stretches of the Mis-
orri, and even tempers the plains OF
Dakota beyond the Rocky Mountains:
Wherever it goes the chains of winter
IRE un!oosed, and the ice-bound rivers
re set free. The Chinook is the nat
bal enemy of the odious east wind,
Ind while ordinarily it yields it's influ-
Ince as gently as the zephys that watt
he thistle down in autumn, still
here are times when the two winds en-
gage in giant conflicts and fight for SUI
premacy, now in the upper then in the
over strata, on the mountains and in
he valleys, alternately driving each
ther back and forth, swaying the
rees, tossing the leaves, and swirling
he rain drops or the crystals Of snow
one or the other advances. But the
ombat is never long aud the victory is
lways with the Chinook. The inhab-
fants east of the Cascade Mountains,
Then winter has seized them and the
asst wind dashes snow in their faces,
ray for the Chinook to come. They
pok b., day for it's moist front and lis
En- by night for the noise of its combat
nth the east wind, and when breaches
hem they rejoice
Such is the Chinook wind, the
4essed wind of the far Northwest.