The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-02-03
THE CHINOOK COMES.
EVEN THE cATTls REcooNlzE THE
BENIGN WIND.

How the Warm Southwest Wind Makes
Its Advent Known to Man and Beast on
the Great Northern Slopes Of Montana.
The Story OF Last December.
Picture to yourself a wild waste of
snow, wind beaten and blizzard furrow-
ed until the vast expanse resembles a
billowy white sea. The frigid air, blow
ing half gale, is filed with needlelike
snow and icy crystals, which sting the
flesh like the bites of poisonous insects
and sift through the finest crevicos. The
sun, low down in the southern horizon,
looks like frozen globe, with halves,
crescents apd bright prismatic bars en-
circling it.
Great herds Of range cattle, which
roam at will and thrive OH the nutri-
tious grasses indigenous to the north
ern slope, wander aimlessly here and
there or more frequently drift with the
wind in vain attempts to find food and
shelter, :-.oauing 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, appealing to the
hardest heart for pity. 1t is sure death
for human beings to be caught out in
ore of these awful billiards, with the
temperature down to 30 or 80 degrees
below zero, unless rescue is speedy
Yet such. conditions frequently exist
in this latitude, as they did for Is days
An November, 1895, when it seemed ms
if the elements had conspired to bring
about another ice age and annihilato
every living thing.
Would the Chinook never come:
The wind veered and backed, now blow
ing as if in derision, and anon becoming
calm as if in contemplation of the DESC
lation on the face of nature, while the
poor dumb animals continued their
ceaseless tramp, crying with pain and
starvation. At last, ON Dec /, at about
the hour Of sunset, there was change,
which experienced piainsmen interpret
ed as favorable to the coming Of the
warm southwest wind. At sunset the
temperature was only 13 degrees, 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 un.
broken by line or break. Only at the
upper edge the curled and serrated
cloud, blown into tatters by wind, was
seen to be the advance courier of the
long prayed for chinook. +" How eager.
ly we watched its approach How we
strained our hearing for the first wei.
come sight Of the gentle breath! But il
was not until 1895 p. IN. that the first
influence was felt. First, puff Of heat,
summerlike in comparison with what
had existed for two weeks, and we ran
to our instrument shelter to observe the
temperature. Up goes the mercury, 81
degrees in seven minutes Now. the
wind has come with 90 mile velocity.
Now the cattle stop travelling and, with
muzzles turned toward 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 Ss
degrees; the great expanse Of snow, 30
inches deep on 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 afterward there are
bare brown hills everywhere; the plains
are covered with floods of water. In o
few days the wind will evaporate the
moisture and the roads will be dry ano
hard. We're it not for the "chinook"
winds the northern slope country would
not be habitable, nor could domestic
animals survive the winters.
States Weather Review.