Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-02-25
s4pw TIE CHINOOK. COMES
Even the Cattle Recognize the First Breath
of the Benign Wind.

Even the Cattle Hecognixe tne rifst oSo1t"
Oft Benign Wind.
Picture to yourself wild waste OF
snow, wind-beaten and blizzard fur
rowed until the vast expanse resembles
a billowy white sea. The frigid air.
blowing half a gale. is filled with
needle-like snow and ice crystals which
sting the flesh like the bites OF poison
GUS insects, and sift through the finest
cyevioes The sun. low down In the
southern horizon. looks like a frozen
globe, with halves, crescents, and bright
prismatic bars encircling II.
Great herds of range cattle, which
roam ut will and thrive on the nu-
tritious grassesindigenous to the north
ern slope, wander aimlessly here ana
there, ar more frequently drift with the
wind in vain attempts to find food and
shelter: moaning In distress from cold
and hunger, their noses hung with
bloody icicles. their legs CALLED and
bleeding from breaking the hard snow
crust as they travel-they appeal to the
hardest heart for pity. 1t is sure death
for human beings to be caught out IN
one Of these awful billiards., with the
temperature down to 80 or so degrees
below zero, unless rescue Is speedy.
Yet, such conditions frequently exist
in this latitude, as they did for fifteen
days In November, 1896, when IL seemed
as IL the elements had conspired to
bring about another ice age, and ami
hilate every living thing.
Would the Chinook" never come?
The wind veered and backed, now howl
ing as IL in derision, and anon becom-
ing calm as II in contemplation OF the
desolation on the face of nature. while
the poor dumb animals continued their
ceaseless tramp, crying with pain and
starvation. At last, on December /, at
about the hour Of sunset, there was
change which experienced plainsmen
interpreted as favorable to the coming
of the warm southwest wind. At sun
set the temperature was only --13 de-
grees, the air scarcely in motion, but
occasionally seeming to descend from
overhead. Over the mountains in the
southwest great bank of black clouds
hung, dark and awesome, whose wide
expanse was unbroken by line or break;
only at the upper edge the curled and
serrated cloud, blown into tatters by
the wind, was seen to be the advance
courier of the long-prayed for Chi
nook" How eagerly We watched its ap-
proach! How we strained our hearing
for the first welcome sight of the gentle
breath! But 1t was not until 11.35 r.
M. that the first influence was felt.
First, puff of heat, summer-like in
comparison with what had existed for
two weeks. and we run to our instru-
ment shelter to observe the tempera-
ture. Up goes the mercury, "a degrees
in seven minutes. Now the wind has
come with twenty-fve-mile velocity.
Now the cattle stop travelling, and with
muZzles turned towards the wind low
with satisfaction. Weary with two
weeks standing on their feet they lie
down in the snow, for they know that
their salvation has come; that now
their bodies will not freeze to the
ground.
The wind increases in strength and
warmth; it blows now in one steady
roar; the temperature has risen to 38
degrees, the great expanse Of snow, 80
inches deep on a level, is becoming
damp and honeycombed by the hot
wind, and we retire satisfied that the
Chinook" Is a genuine and lasting one.
Twelve hours afterwards there are
bare brown hills everywhere; the plains
are covered with floods of water. In
few days the wind will evaporate the
moisture. and the roads will be dry
and hard. Were 1t not for the Chi
nook" winds the northern slope coun-
try would not be habitable, nor could
domestic animals survive the winters.
United States Weather Review.