The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-03-07
NATURES WONDERLAND.
Curious Climatic Changes on California
Mountain Ranges.

MAI Uht'S WUNUtRLRNU,
Curious Climatic Changes on California
Mountain Ranges.
| The traveller who comes to Cali
tornia by the Central Pacific line
during the winter months expert
ence a surprise which is of SO re
| markable and at the same time
agreeable character that its charm
is never lost. No matter what sights
may follow or sensations be expert
enced, no matter how thickly the
trip may be crowded with events
of note, the first introduction to the
Golden State stands out sharp and
clear in his memory when all else
has become but a dim recollection.
Let the tourist leave his Eastern
home after the winter season shall
have commenced. Journeying west
ward the same climatic exigencies
common to all the country east OF
the Sierra are encountered. Icy
wi DIS sweep the plains, snow lies to
a depth of many feet upon the face
of the earth, the windows of the
cars are coated with frost, and hot
fires and loads OF blankets are nee
essary for even ordinary comfort.
As the boundary line Of California
is crossed the cold becomes more in
tense, the SHOWS are deeper, and a
veritable Arctic climate seems to
have ben encountered.
Half dozen locomotives become
necessary to move the train, and
they puff and groan and give vent
to many an ear-piercing shrek as
they slowly and YEARLY climb the
steep grade. The snow is SO deep
that the outlook from the window is
entirely cut off, the white walls ris-
ing perpendlcularly on either hand
far above even the car roofs
Here may be seen the most pom
derous machinery ever devised for
clearing the snow from the tracks.
Immense ploughs of different pat
terms, propelled by a dozen or fif-
teen locomotives each, are kept
busy fighting the snow, which lies
twenty feet, thirty feet, or even
deeper, on the level, and which is
drifted by the gale in perfect ava
lanches. For miles and miles the
track is protected by snow sheds,
whose massive timbers groan and
strain with.the weight imposed upon
them.
STEP OUTSIDE THE CAR.
Here are armies of men, their
faces blackened with SCOT to pre-
vent blindness and their feet swarth-
ed in rolls of gunny sacklng, shovel
ing as if their lives depended upon
it, and yet unable to keep more
than few feet of the road passable.
Step outside the car and the cold is
so intense that stay Of couple OF
minutes in the open air is amply
sufficient to cool the most ardent
curiosity. If d thermometer be
handy..it will be found to mark ten,
even twenty degrees below zero.
The very air itself is filled with icy
needles, and there is a penetrative
ness in the chill atmosphere that the
heaviest and warmest wrappings are
unable to resist.
Perhaps a stop is made at some
station. One may perchance learn
by consulting the guide book or an
unusually obliging employee that
there is a town Of couple of thou
sand inhabitants close by. But there
are no proofs OF that fact visible to
the inexperienced eye. All that can
be- seen is a confused tumble of odd
shaped mounds OF snow, from the
centre of many OF which columns OF
smoke ascend slowly into the frost
laden atmosphere. Everything is
buried in the snow, from the shanty
to the two-storied business block,
and, though the traveller may have
passed all his life in the Eastern
States, be will be obliged to confess
that he never really knew what snow
was capable of doing or causing
until he came to California. If dis
posed to be sarcastic he will read
from his guide book entertaining de-
scriptions of outdoor midwlnter
pic-nics, with orange trees laden
with golden fruit, the air heavy with
perfumes, the earth carpeted with
blossoms, and then ask what sort of
a semi tropical climate this is any
how. If the train should be showed
in week or two his sarcasm will be-
come bitterer and bitterer as the
time YEARLY passes away, until the
most ardent lover OF this lovable
State will be silenced.
But revenge-sweet revenge-is
in store for the silenced Californian,
Shivering with the cold, the snow
piled mountains high, the wind
whistling gale, the skeptical and
disguised traveller buries himself
beneath pile OF blankets and seeks
relief from the disagreeable sights
and sounds of midwinter in the
Sierra.
THE SUMMIT HAS BEEN CROSSED.
A few hours pass-half a dozen
perhaps. The train has been steadily
pushing its way westward. The
summit has been crossed. The extra
engines that have been called in to
assist the cars UP the mountain have
been dismissed. The puff and snort,
the groan and whistle have ceased.
The gait has been accelerated and