, 1889-10-25
THE CHINOOK MIRACLE.
EFFECTS OF THE SPICE LADEN
WIND FROM THE PACIFIC.

Neutrality-suspicious. Feet of Snow Wiped
Out In Twelve Hours-BattIe Between
the Chinook and the East wind.
As soon as you get into the Dakotas
you hear of the "chinooks." From that,
as you go westward. the stories grow
bigger. The chinook Is a warm wind
which comes from the Pacific, crosses
the Cascade and the Rocky Mountain
ranges, and makes its genial influence
felt as far as the eastern border of the
Dakotas. The farmer on the p~rairies does
not know whence the chinook cometh or
whittier it goeth, but he does know that
it is a blessed reality.
When the mercury is away down in
the thirties below zero, so near the bulb
that there is danger of its going out of
sight, the eyes of the people in the four
new states urn hopefully to the west.
By and by there appears just above the
western horizon n gray cloud, like float
ing mist, NJ larger han a mans hand
perhaps. That is the sure f%orerunner of
the chinook. The cold may be intense;
water courses may be frozen to the bot
tom; cattle may be perishing from hun
ger; the ground may be covered many
inches deep with snow; existence may
seem a burden to all things animate.
Then the cloud appears. Twelve hours
later what a transformation! There is
the breath of spring in the air. The
snow is going off. The cattle arc brows-
ing on the bunch grass. The coulees are
full Of running water. Doors are ajar,
windows are open, and everybody is out
in the open air. The chinook has wrought
the miracle.
CATTLE KNOW II sIoNs.
In the closing hours of the constitu-
tional convention of Washington, a dele
gate offered a resolution 10 the effect
that there be Incorporated in the instru-
ment a declaration that natives of this
new state be known hereafter as 'chi-
nookers." The appropriateness of the
name, he argued, was found in the fact
that chinook mean a warm breath. He
believed it was much better than the
presen. custom of calling Washington
people west Of the Cascades "clam eat
ers," and those on the east side "bunch
grassers."
Mr.. S. G.. Cosgrove, of Pomeroy, is the
department commander of the Grand
Army Of the Republic OF Washington.
Telling OF what he had known the Chi
nook to accomplish, Mr.. Cosgrove said
this:
II have seen eight feet of snow-that
fs, eight feet measured as it felL-from
time to time-go of the ground here in
twelve hours. That was the hardest
winter / have known in Washington.
Usually the chinooks are so frequent
that the snow has no opportunity to ac-
cumulate. But that winter it lay nine
teen days before melting. The farmers
had not prepared for it, and cattle had a
hard time getting through. There was
an interesting exhibition of the instinct
OF the poor brutes. At the very first
sign of the chinook the old cows, which
had been about to drop with hunger,
could be seen staggering TOWARD the tops
of the hills. They seemed to know that
there the snow would melt fastest and
the grass be uncovered oonest In east
ern Washington you can see teams
working in the fields every month in the
winter. We have days which are cold,
and when the ground freezes to some
depth, but one days ohinooking will
take all the frost out of the ground. You
may not believe it, but / have seen six
inches OF frost go out OF the ground in
one hour"
SOME REMARKABLE THINGS
Ex-Governor Semple, who is the au-
thority on all such subjects, says the Chi
nook is a balmy wind that comes from
the karo Siroo, the great Japanese cur-
rent of the Pacific. The chinook is q
cool wind in summer and a warm wind
in winter. To it is due the absence of
extremes in temperatures. People in
Washington do o freeze to death in
winter, nor are they ever sunstruck in
summer. Long years of close observa-
ton have taught the ex-governor many
interesting things about this curious
wind. One of these things is that at
times the chinook is odoriferous, as IL
spice laden from the tropics.
The chinook" said the ex-governor,
lis so gentle upon ordinary occasions
that its presence cannot be noted by its
motion, and yet it is almost miraculous
in its effects. Snow and ice disappear
before it with great rapidity. 1t seems
to be able to blow for long distances be-
tween walls OF colder air without parting
with its heat. Sometimes 1t constitutes
an upper current, in which case the re-
markable spectacle is witnessed of snow
melting on the mountain tops while Their
mometers in the valleys register below
the freezing point. At other times it is
the surface current and follows the
gorges and valleys as a flood might fol-
low them. 1t seems to bear healing upon
its wings, like Sandolphon, the Angel of
Prayer. This wind sometimes p~enetrates
as far as the upper stretches of the Mis-
souri,, and even tempers the air on the
plains of the Dakotas. 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 ordi-
narily it yields its influence as gently
as b zephyrs hat watt the thistle
downs in autumn, still there are times
when the winds engage in giant conflicts
and hight for supremacy, now in the
upper, then in the lower strata, on the
mountains and in the valleys, alternate
ly driving each other back and forth.
swaying the trees, tossing the leaves,
and swirling the rain drops or the crys-
tails Of snow. But the combat is never