Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1897-03-23
CLIMATIC EXTREMES.

L l.
!'ARTs OF THE COUNTRY WITH ONE
REGULARITY OR ANOTHER.
HE Yellowstone Has the Greatest Range
Of Temperatures Death Valley tho Hot
test Place-Where It Rains Every Day.
. Over the Hill From Winter to Summer.
have run about the United States a
good deal for the last 80 years and have
made memory. notes of such climatic
peculiarities as have come under my OBJ
servation.
The place having the widest range of
temperature Of any with which I am
familiar is Fort Keogh, in the Yellow
stone valley. Not infrequently in the
winter the mercury tumbles down to 80
degrees below zero, and it has been
known in summer to climb up to 100
degrees above. Here is an extreme range
of ITO degrees, and yet people manage
to live very comfortably there the year
round. In the early summer the grass
on the plains and hills turns brown and
yellow, and all green vanishes from the
wide landscape except where q fringe
Of cottonwood trees skirts water course.
1t is q popularity Of the extreme high
temperature in the arid regions that you
do not perspire at all-that is, you do
not sensibly perspire. The moisture is
all evaporated from your skin as fast as
1t is formed by the extreme dryness of
the air. The heat is not nearly SO op-
pressive, however, as it is at tempera-
ture of 80 or 80 degrees along the At
lantic seaboard. If you are indoors or
under the shade of tree, you are quite
comfortable.
Anything that will break thu fierce
rays OF the sun is sufficient to relieve
you from all oppression from the high
temperature; Travelling some years ago
across the hot, bil1owy plain of the great
basin OF the Colnmbia with a camping
party looking up a route for railroad,
we came to 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 {; great rock i'm a
weary land' and realized that little
shade meant as much to the people of
arid Palestine as to us tired travellers in:
arid America
The hottest place in the United States
is unquestionably Death valley, in
southern California. IL 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 a party Of men who en-
tered the valley in July, knowing moth
ing Of the deadly b eat, and who pre-
served their lives by Lying all day in the
water of little strea m that came ont Of
the mountains and was soon dried up in
the fierce rays of tll.> sun. They were:
glad to escape under the cooling shades
Of night
The rainiest place Ill the United States
is Neah bay, on the strait Of Fuca, in
the state Of Washington. It 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 a 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 scoopeu
out by tho rotary plow. Once through
the tunnel Oh 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 all
hour you meet the full spring. The grass
is green, waterfowl swim Oh the rivers
and bays, the crows are holding THEN:
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 you
should start from Chicago in January
and travel to the gulf Of Mexico, yet the
whole distance you have traversed to
bring about this wonderful transforma-
ton is less than 100 miles.
The most peculiar climatic region
with which I am familiar is the Puget
sound basin, in the state of Washington.
1t is separated from the ocean on the
west by the rugged snow clad range Of
the Olympic mountains, and it's eastern
boundary is the still loftier range Of the
Cascades. The sound is connected with
the Pacific by the broad strait of Juan
de Fuca, and up this strait pours a great
volume Of moist air, brought by the
Japan current from far out to sea-. The
mountains of Vancouver island on ono
side and the Olympics on the other make
Of the strait an enormous funnel, and