The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-02-04

asked.
aPerhaps twenty minutes-not half
hour, anyhow.
"Did it rain in the valIey?"
Not drop"
As described by Lee, this cloud was not
very much like the tornado common to the
prairie region east OF the Rockies. 1t was
not whirling storm, nor did it travel
away from the place where it was formed,
as tornado does. 1t was simply great
mass of black vapor constantly aAame with
zigzag lightning. 1t seemed to gather
tremendous bulk of water from stratum
of air above the mountain tops, to swell in
volume as it gathered the water; and finally,
when change of conditions was created
by touching the mountain tops: to release
its garnered floods instantly. The cloud
was streaked with lightning until after the
mountains were embraced, and then the
flashes disappeared and in short time the
cloud itself was dissipated. Lee did not
notice any unusual wind while the storm
lasted.
The effects of these cloudbursts can best
be realized by consideration Of some of
the authentic reports of such storms. For
instance, a cloudburst in the Humboldt
Mountains, Nevada, on June 10, 1884,
flooded the valleys about Rye Patch and
badly damaged the Central Pacific tracks
for thirty miles. On the 10th of March
the same year a stretch of the Atlantic
and Pacific track six miles long was
washed away just west of Daggett, Cal,
and on the same day another eloudburst
near Yuma, Arizona, washed away about
as much more of the track there Three
days earlier, March Z, 1884, the streets of
Florence, Arizona, were flooded four feet
by cloudburst at the nearby mountains.
The effect of such food among the
houses of mining camp may be imagined
by New Workers if they will consider
what tide four feet high would do if it
swept through the shanties in the goat
district.
A still more destructive food was re-
ported from Arizona in 1887. On Sept.
9 several miles of track and number of
bridges were destroyed near Pantarro,
while another cloud burst on the 18th
washed away five miles of track and three
bridges on the Sonora Railroad and washed
out eight miles of a railroad that was fifty
feet high near Dragon.
Among the dangers that beset the mi
ner, everybody is familiar with falling
rocks, broken ropes that let the bucket or
cage fly, and cave-ins that crush or impris
on the men at work But in the noun
tains of the desert the cloudburst is an
ever-present danger, though it rarely takes
the life of a miner Many of the leads
are discovered in canons, and some are
worked so that the mouth of the mine is
right in the bottom of the canon. A case
of the kind existed near Eureka, New.
On Aug Z, 1884, a cloud burst on Ruby
Hill. When the flood poured through
Adams Hill Canon it was in the form of
wave that opposite the Williamsburg
mine was thirty feet wide and seven feet
deep. A little further on the mouth of
the Titus shaft opened right in the path
of the wave The men about the top of
the shaft fed up the east side of the can
oni but imagine the situation of the man
at the bottom of the shaft, who could hear
the roar of the flood and the shouts of his
fellows above but was powerless to escape
the destruction that overwhelmed him
These heavy downfalls of rain have in a
few cases been measured. At Encinitas,
California, on Oct. II, 1889, 7.5S inches
of water fell between 10 at night and 6
the next morning. On the 18th of Octo-
ber, 1888, between Cactus and Salton,
California, on the Southern Pacific Rail
road, two inches of water fell in one hour,
while at Yuma, Arizona, in August, 1886,
eight-tenths of an inch fell in twenty min
utes. OF course very extensive floods or
waves accumulated in every gulch and can
on under such downpours, for the regions
were and are devoid Of any tree or vegeta-
BILE growth to retain any part of the water
where it fell.
One can better understand, perhaps,
what the effect Of two.ineh fall in one
hour on the desert means when it is said
that a fall of 3.39 inches during the course
of twenty-four hours in the verdant region
of Los Angeles caused numerous washouts
on the railroads and suspended all rail
communication with the city for some
hours.
In August, 1890, Palmetto, Nevada,
had an unusual and remarkable experience
in storms. Palmetto is little old mining
camp about two days journey south of
Columbus. On the 7th of the month
huge cloud gathered on the mountains
east of the camp, and eventually, after the
fashion of these summer thunder clouds,
sagged down till the crests of the mOutains
were enclosed. This done, the cloud, in
stead of dissipating itself there, as such
clouds usually do, rolled rapidly down the
sides of the range into the valley with
much water in its trail 1t is said to have
been fearful spectacle, though in no way
to be compared to what was seen on the
1lth.