Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-06-26

signs Of a severe storm is to be looked
for in the character of the clouds
directly opposite to the quarter from
which the wind happens too be blow
ing. 1t is there that the clouds are
most dense and threatening when
severe weather is at hand.
A heavy dew shows approaching
southerly winds. When spider
weaves its web in the rigging the crew
can get out their paint pots and slush
buckets and proceed to prepare the
ships to make handsome appearance
in port When birds are numerous
and fly low. excepting petrels, which
come with boisterous weather, you
may set the light sails and the men
may reel spun yarn and mend the
spare suit of sails on deck. But when
the birds fly high or are entirely absent,
clew up and haul down, and keep
your weather eye open. When the
porpoises gambol at random about the
ship and tumble in vrious directions
they show their frolicsome appreoia-
ton of the fact that the sea is in one
of her happier moods. But when they
keep on seriously in one direction with
out swerving. as if conscious of their
mission in life, then look our for wind
in the quarter toward which they are
going. A great abundance of phos-
phorous in the water at night is sign
of southerly and stormy weather.
The waves also furnish indications
of changing weather. A swell coming
up against the wind or in calm, and
gathering in size from hour to hour,
shows storm at distance which may
meet the ship unless she happily passes
out of the limit of it's circle before it
reaches her. There is nothing SO
little understood by many as waves.
their varying forms action and size.
and the absolute conditions which
produce the different types. A wave
breaking OH coast is altogether differ
ent from a wave thousand miles from
land. In the former case the move
mentor wave is simply forward
action rather than water carried in
bulk-has reached it's limit. After
proceeding perhaps many hundred
miles it is brought to a head by the
land. Finding no vent in the elastic
depths below when the water shoals
it changes it's from, becoming sleeper
and sleeper, and more and more hol-
low, until it curls over in long roller
and ceases to exist The height and
length of such a comber depends again
on whether the water shoals gradually
or suddenly. But wave out at sea,
with thousand or two thousand
fathoms below it, is quite another
affair. 1t is vast complex mound OF
mountain, composed Of innumerable
subdivisions and minor waves, and its
crest or white caps forms but a very
small proportion Of the whole mass
and slides rather than curls over huge
heaving sort of table-land of water.
Off the Cape of Good Hope such waves
are often sixty feet high. But those
of the North Atlantic, in a storm, are
from thirty five to forty feet high from
hollow to crest What are popularity
called tidal waves by the enterprisina
young reporters who undertake to de-
scribe the shipping of big sea by Q
vessel do not. in point of fact, exist
at least not in the sense use by the
newspapers There is certain rhythm
to the movement of waves, some being
larger than others, at somewhat regu-
lar intervals and without apparent rea
son. These larger waves come in
groups of three and more rarely of five,
the third being the largest. Occasion
ally ship. when hove to, or steamer
breasting gale takes one Of these
large seas at such an angle as to cause
it to sweep over the vessel with prodi
gious force; or, sometimes two waves
from different quarters, caused re-
spectively by the prevailing wind and
by one that is coming from elsewhere
may meet and. rising in steep pyra.
midal form, strike ship. In either
case the shock is terrible, but that II
all there is to what is so often eron
eously called a tidal wave. What arr
really tidal waves are the huge rollers
or bores which sweep into bays where
exceptionally high tides prevail. as il
the river Hoagley or the Bay of Fundy
But there are other dangers on thu
! sea which even the most wary canno
foresee nor always avoid. Such is thu
, mournful or terrible derelict or aban
doned ship, drifting at random in thu
, track of vessels. which may strike it il
, the gloom of stormy night and g
down with all ON board. Perhaps afte
its long wandering the derelict arrive
at the Sea of Sargasso an eddy in tn
, ocean currents southwest of the Canar,
! Islands. also called the Lumber Yard
, There gather the flotsam and jetsam
, the wreckage, the kelp and the sea
, weed washed from far.off lands; Their
they idly float ON the CLASSY solitud
of mid ocean, and rot in the burnin
rays of MINDLESS atmosphere.
! Or the sudden white squall dismast
ship, coming without warning iron
9 clear sky; or the sublime but remol
, se.ess waterspout, supporting tn
! clouds like titanic column. and NOV
ing with irresistible rapidity, sweep