Evening journal., 1897-03-18
CLIMATIC EXTREMES.
PARTS or THE COUNTRY WITH ONE
REGULARITY OR ANOTHER.

good deal for the last 80 years and have
made memcry rotes Of such climatic
peculiarities as have come under my OBJ.
servation.
The place having the widest range Of
temperature of any with which 1 am
familiar is Fort Keogh, in the Yellow.
stone valley. Not infrequently IN the
winter the mercury tunhlcs down to 6C
degrees below zero, ard it has been
known in SUMMER to climb up to l2C
degrees above. Here is an extreme range
of 40 degrees, and yet people manage
10 live very comfortably there the yeai
round. In the early simmer the grass
on the plains and hills turns brown and
yellow, and all green vanishes from the
wido landscape except where a fringe
Of cottonwood trees skirts a water course.
1t is popularity Of the extreme high
temperature in the arid regions that you
do not perspire at all-that is, you dc
not sensibly perspire The moisture is
all evaporated from your skin rs fast as
the cir. The heat is rot nearly so op
pressivc, however, as it is at a tempera
ture of 80 or 80 degrees along the At
lantic seaboard. If you are indoors Of
under the shade of tree, you are quite
comfortable.
Anything that viii break the fierce
rays Of the sun is sufficient to relieve
yOu from al oppression from the high
temperature. Travelling some years ago
across the hot, billowy plain of the great
basin Of tho Columbia with camping
party locking up a route for "a railroad,
we came to Il huge columnar rock of
black basalt. The day was intensely hot
We stopped the teams, and, throwing
ourselves down on the shady side Of the
rock, We recalled the phrase in the Bible
about 1.-THE shadow Of a great rock in
weary land and realized that little
shade meant as much to the people Of
arid Palestine IS to us tired travellers in
arid America.
The hottest place in the United States
is unquestionably Death valley, in
southern California 1t is about 200 feet
below the sea level and is trimmed
around with black, bare mountains.
Birds flying across this valley in the
heated season often drop dead. Borax
is found here, but the mining processes
cease in the heat of midsummer. read
somewhere of party of men who en-
tered the valley in July, knowing moth
ing of the deadly heat, and who pre-
served their lives by lying all day in the
water of little stream that came out Of
the mountains and was soon dried up in
the fierce rays Of the sun. They We're
glad to escape under the cooling shades
of night
The rainiest place in the United States
is Neah bay, on the strait Of Fuca, in
the state of Washington. 1t actually
rains every day in the year, and the
total annual precipitation is nearly 100
inches. There is an Indian reservation
on the bay. The natives have q very
pretty knack Of making ornamental
basins and carving wooden bowls, which
they decorate with high colors.
The most remarkable climatic barrier
in the United States is that of the Cas-.
cade mountains, in Washington. In win
ter time the railway train tolls up the
eastern slope of these mountains between
walls of snow higher than the roofs OF
the cars i'll long winding lane scooped
out by the rotary plow. Once through
the tunnel on the Northern Pacific, OF
over the switchback ON the Great North
ern, you suddenly leave winter behind
you, and, whirling down the western
slope of the mountains, in less than an
hour you meet the full spring. The grass
is green, waterfowl swim on the rivers
and bays, the crows are holding theil
annual conventions in the tree tops with
much oratorical clamor, and when you
arrive at Tacoma you find the flowers
blooming in the dooryards. The change
seems magical and is as great as If yor
should start from Chicago in January
and travel to the gulf of Mexico, yet tho
whole distance you have traversed tC
bring about this wonderful transforma
ton is less than 100 miles.
The most peculiar climatic region
with which am familiar is the Pugei
sound basin, in the state of Washington
1t is separated from the ocean On the
west by the rugged snow clad range o.
the Olympic mountains, and its eastern
boundary is the still loftier range of thu
, Cascades. The sound is connected viii
the Pacific by the broad strait OF Juai
de Fuca, and up this strait pouIs grea
volume of moist air, brought by th'
Japan current from far out to sea. TIT
mountains of Vancouver island ON on,
side and the Olympics ON the other maxi
of the strait an enormous funnel, an'
the moisture laden winds are condense'
against the cold, snowy ranges on eithe
hand and are precipitated in frequen
showers upon the shores of the sound
1t rarely SHOWS there, but it rains lit
tie almost every day from October {
June. The result is to produce a dens
r vegetable growth in the forest consisting
of immense trees-firs, hemlocks, spruce
e and cedars-and Of underground S
e dense that it is almost impossible t
force your way through it without har
! work with an AK. A ST. Paul man @
nv acquaintance went out to that regio
v to see what he called his farm. He own