The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1897-02-04
The Chinook.

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resem lies a billowy white sea.
The friyid air bIowing half gale,
is filled with needle like snow and
ice crystals VIII cb sting the. flesh
like the bites of poisont us insects,
and Silt through the finest crev,
ices. The sun low down ia the
southern horizon, looks like "a frozen
globe, wi IA halo S, crescents aud
"riSht prisna'ic Bar, rncircling it.
Great herds of range cattle
which roam at will and thrive on
h. nutri'ritious grasses indigenous
to the northern slope wander aim
lrs sly here and there, or more
fre4 4uently drift with distress from
cold and hunger, their noses hung
with blo"dy iciclrs, y cir legs cut
and btt3ding from nreak ny the
h rd snow crust as they travel
they appeal to the hardest hear,
for pity.
II is sure deal h for human beings
to We c,ugt; an IN one of these
awful blizz .rds, with the tempera~
ture down to thirty or fifty degrees
helow zrr'. unless resc'ie i, speedy.
vt, such conditions frequently
exist in this la,itud" us they did
for fifteen days in N,v"mber, 1896,
,whHn it seemed $ il h" elements
had consp'red to bring abou,
another ice az and annihilate
every living thing
Would the "chinook", never
come? The wind veerpd and
backed; now bowling as if in de.
ri>ion, and anon becoming calm. as
if in contemplation of the desola.
tion in the face of nature, while
the poor dumb animals continued
their ceaseless tramp, rying with
pain and starvation.
At last on Decembrr 1st at about
the hour of sunset, there was a
change w1i,.h experience plains
men interpreted as favorable to th
looming of the warm southwest
wind. At sunset the temperature
was only thirteen below zero, the
air scarcely in notion, but oc "a
sionally seemed to descend from
overhead Over the untains in
the southwest great bank of
black clouds hung, dark and awe
some, whose wide expanse was un-
broken by line or cut; 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
"chinook. k" But it was not until
IL 35 p. m that the first influence
was felt. FIRST, puff of heat, sum
U er-like in comparison with what
had existed for two weeks, and we
| ran to our instrument shelter to
observe the temperature. 7 Up
,goes-the. mercury thirty four de-
grees in sever minutes. Now the
wind has come with a 25-mie
velocity Now the cattle ste p
travelling, and with muzzles turned
toward the wind, low with salts.
faction. 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 the
one steady roar; the temperature
has risen to 3S degrees; the great
expanse of snow thirty inches deep
on level is becoming damp and
honeycombed by the hot wind, and
we retire satisfied that the "chi-
nook" is y genli and lasting or e
Twelve hours afterward there
are bare brown hills every where ;
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.
We've it not for the "chinook"
winds the northern slope country
would not be habitable, nor could
domestic animals survive the
winter, A B. Coz.
Voluntary Observer, Kipp, Mont,
in Monthly Weather Review.
I Like conditions to those de
scribed in the first part of this
article now prevail in Montana IN
great severity, making this gem iu
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