The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-03-12
EuATIc EXTREMES.
oe THE COUNTRY WITH ONE
o,,,,ARITY OR ANOTHER.


where 1t Rains Every Day
~, Hill From Winter to summer
have run about the United states a
ps ,os, for the last 8 years and have
M, memory notes of such climatic
tics as have come under my OBJ
alton. ;ao.. uo,o -,
~ i,nra of any with which l am
i'or Is Fort Keogh, in the Yellow
~o,lev Not infrequently Ill the
'. ,hc mercury tumbles down 10 90
below zero, and it has been
:, simmer to climb up to 100
.os above. Here is an extreme range
N degrees, and yet people manage
80 yerv comfortably there the year
a Tn the early summer the grass
thp Mains and hills turns brown and
law and all green vanishes from The
i landscape except where a fringe
.o,topwood trees skirts a water course.
! neculiarity of the extreme high
,nsroture in the arid regions that you
NOT perspire at all-that is, you do
consibly perspire. The moisture is
ovaporated from your skin as fast as
e formed by the extreme dryness OF
air The heat is not nearly SO OPP
Ossiye. however, as it is at tempera-
- Of so or 90 degrees along the At
mic seaboard. If you are indoors or
sdor the shade of tree, you are quite
pmfortable
ANYTHING that will break the fierce
We Of the sun is sufficient to relieve
hi from all oppression from the high
Pmperature. Travelling some years ago
cross the hot, billowy plain of the great
asn of the Columbia with camping
arty looking up route for railroad,
70 came to huge columnar rock of
lack basalt. The day was intensely hot.
Ne stopped the teams, and, throwing
urselves down OH the shady side of the
ock, we recalled the phrase in the Bible
bout ''the shadow Of great rock in a
Keary land" and realized that q little
bade meant as much to the people of
rid Palestine as to us tired travellers in
bird America.
The hottest place in the United States
Il unquestionably Death valley, i'll
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. i 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 a little stream that came out Of
the mountains and was soon dried up in
the fierce rays of the sun. They were
. 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 i'll the year, and the
total annual precipitation il nearly 100
inches. There is an Indian reservation
on the bay The natives have 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 in long winding lane scooped
out by the rotary pillow. Once through
the tunnel on the Northern Pacific, or
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
nour you meet the full spring. The grass
Sgreen, waterfowl swim on the rivers
and bays, the crows are holding their
annual conventions in the tree tops with
much oratorical clamor, and when you
arrive at Tacoma you find the flowers
blooming i'll the dooryards, The change
seems magical and is as great as if you
should start from Chicago in January
ana travel to the gulf of Mexico. yet the
whole distance you have traversed to
uring about this wonderful transforma-
uon Is less than 100 miles.
Inc most peculiar climatic region
WIN which l am familiar is the Puget
SOUND basin, in the state of Washington.
~ Is separated from the ocean on the
west py the rugged snow clad range Of
,ic olympic mountains, and its eastern
"CVundary Is the still loftier range of the
cascades The sound is connected with
we facific by the broad strait of Juan
NC ruca, and up this strait pours great
, yne OF moist air, brought by the
Japan current from far out to sea. The
.aVuhtalns of Vancouver island on one
sue ana the Olympics OH the other make
"a ~ the strait an enormous funnel, and
'ne moisture laden winds are condensed
asainst the cold, snowy ranges OH either
a Iand and are precipitated in frequent
S :. upon the shores of the sound.
AZ =, rarely SHOWS there, but it rains a lit
do almost every day from October to
oune' The result is to produce dense
Vegetable growth in the forest consisting
'. Immense trees-firs, hemlocks, spruces