The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-02-03

Two Inches Yesterday and More
Coming Down.
A COAL FAMINE IN THE CITY.
Trains Unable TO Get in From Mines
Railroads Suffering Heavily
The Chinook Expected.

Two inches more snow was added yesterday
b the twenty-four inches previously on the
ground. and il began showing again last night
with the indications favorabis to a still further
addition Of six or eight inches. But little pro-
gress is being made toward thawing out aud re-
pairing the frozen water pipes no that people
might st less, have a supply of water. To COM
. etc the hardship. it Is now almost certain that
there will he coal famine, as predicted in yes.
terday's Posi- iNrELLIaEScER, and there is also
likely 10 be q scarcity of oats, hay and potatoes
81 the weather does not break very soon
The Black Diamond Coal Company did not
have bit OF coal yesterday, and the Oregon I'm.
provement Company was out the day before,
with the exception OF screenings and nut coal
which was in the shipping bunKers. This was
being loaded on a scow and taken around to the
Washington street slip to furnish a supply for
the power houses and electric light plants.
There was 1,lo0 tons OF this in the honkers,
which insures sufficient supply 10 the power
houses and light pants for several days. But
stove coal Is not TO be had until The coal trains
On the Columbia d Puget Sound road get in.
There were three trains on the way last night.
but II WAS very doubtful whether they would
reach the city or not
The Seattle Coal and Iron Company's supply
Oh stove coal gave out at noon and from that
on the test that to be had was screenings
The employees at the bunkers said that a train
was expected In and that the real cause OF the
Delay IN getting in a supply was the scarcity of
cars.
The facilities for obtaining coal from other
sources are poor. The Seattle & Montana road
10 open and the Blue Canyon coal might come
In. but the railroad has no bunkers nor has II
any yard room to store cars. Requests are COM
Ing in to this city for coal from Tacoma Everett,
enohomish and many other places, which can
not be filled, well pc reQuests for cargoes for
ships. The Roslyn mines find an ample mar
ket for their output east of the mountains. The
Nilkeson mines are not operating, they having
found fault in their vein, and they are now
driving rock tunnel to catch the vein again.
The ter mines have given out The Tacoma
Coal Company has abandoned its deep WORK
iugs, AID cannot readily increase its output,
from the upper workings. In tact, fully 1900
tons more of coal could have been sold here last
month II Ii had been on the market.
All the street car lines were opened ND yester-
day. with the exception of the Seattle end of
the West street line and the Lake street line 1t
took great deal OF work to get the tracks
cleared and II was late in the day before some of
the lines got the cars running regularly. The
west siect line VIII be opened all the way this
morning, If it is possible TO clear the tracks
The snow has piled up 30 on the roofs of
the buildings that people are beginning
Z TO De afraid OF their breaking down, especially
In case IL should begin raining suddenly, nd
By wetting ths snow, greatly increase the
/ weight Consequently men are at work on
nearly all the roofs of large buildings shoveling
OF snow. Large forces of n en- are also a. work
In the railroad yards cleaning off the tracks, and
with the extra men the street car companies
have employed, there are probably at least 300
81 work shoveling snow. These are the only
ones who draw any real consolation from the
situation.
All the rivers flowing into the Sound are
frozen up so that no boats can get up There is
two inches Of ice on the Snohomish river and
al the boats running to snohomish are hurgup
except the Mabel, which continues to run
through TO Everett The Z. W. Purdy went out
Tor Snohomish Monday aud has not arrived
back, having been trozen in up there. The
Henry Bailey has gone TO Tacoma TO lie up until
the river thaws out The Fairhaven was de-
layed so much on account of having to use salt
water In her boiler that she did not get in on
her last trip until late Wednesday night SO she
did not go out again until last night The City
OF seattle did not arrive in from Whatcom at all
Wednesday on account of the storm. She came
In yesterday, nearly two hours late. but lett on
l her regular time last night The officers gave
~ tnc cause o. the delay the heavy fal, of snow
i They said IL was worse to run in than fog.
Nearly all the other boats made their regular
/ trips, though some of them came In a little
| behind time
| Steamer Haytian Republic arrived in port
| from Portland. aud Capt strive reported a very
| hard trip He said that on Tuesday night was
| the worst weather he had ever experienced
Monday night was bad too, but not as bad as the
night before. one OF his ears is badly swollen
from having been frozen The vessel brought
In only twenty-V re tons OF freigh: for this port,
but she had l, 100 tons of -four for Vancouver to
Do shipped 10 China over the Canadian Pacific
seams nip line. The crew OF the steamer City
i Of Topeka also reported having had very cold
weather on her trip to Alaska 1t was nice and
u clear all the time. but very cold The vessel is
i taking on her fuel at the bunkers and will sal;
on her next tip al o'clock Sunday morning
ehe brought down but very little freight and
only few passengers. Bark Harvester finished
loading her cargo of coal last night, but will
probably not go to sea until the weather mod
Crates.
n All the city schools were closed yesterday on
account OF the freezing up of the water pipes so
The buildings could not be heated. They will
oil ee open today. however. bat the State uni
serSiiy will be closed until Monday.
III Following is the official record OF the weather
q furnished oy Local Observer Apheus Byers,
io' the twenty-four hours preceding 5 O'Clock
iasi evening": Maximum temperature, 20; mini
mum, 49, mean, l25; snowfall, 2 inches, equal
to . OF sn inch of rainfall: wind north; cloudy
II weather. This shows that the temperature has
been gradually rising little each day, aud il ia
therefore possible that a change viii soon take
place
II Last night the following forecast for the sue
feeding 'weniy-iour hours WAS received from
Signal Ohcer Pague, OF Portland: snow:
II e0Aet.'
III As there is considerable discussion lust now
on the subject OF weather records and the in
tnuments used in securing them, especially As
The official record of the lowest temperature o.,
Hi Tuesday differed 50 much from that registered
III ey several private instruments, the following
Ill Interview on the question with 4 pheus Byers
II local weather observer ior the government wtll
III Be Of interest lie says:
III Mercury Thermometers are no. accurate for
II Register ng the degree Of cold below 10 deg
II hooVe 70 The reason for n g - that mercury
Hes at - below, and.the nearer il reac he's the
H ireeg ug po!ut the more inaccurate x becomes
A.coho. mas never been knos II To freeze and
tefe,ore : very accurate ia registering the ce-
gro 81 cod when tAe instrument is urogerly
Nade- but IA registering the degree of hest
sooNe ~ or q t5e relative accuracy OF the TWO
r. Is 90 instruments is reversed. Alcohol batls
~ l., =" l.le mercury does not boil until IL
III ieaehes o. his makes IL the more accurate
ii t1tH ior recording the degree of heat above
II certain point Both are used for keeping tue
HI eaicla record.
Ia the splrlt thermometer which we use in
HI water taere is a black disc which goes down
II s1'a the spirits They are contracted in the
II 80, uuI "aen Tie spirits begin 10 go up again
III a-t 4.ec remains at the lowest point reached
- SHOWS tbe MI imUm temperature for the
kStsed during which Is was lett undiSturhes
ief fof ysar u would record the lowest
pVhs reached, 80 that 7 c0ald tell at snv time
49, "Hat The minimum tempcrEture tor