The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-02-02
THE CHINOOK COMES.
Even the Cattle Recognize the Be
nign Wind.
How Southwest Wind Makes its Ad.
vent Known to Man and Beast.

Picture TO yourself a wild waste O.
snow, wind beaten and blizzard furrow
ed until the vast expanse resembles {
biliowy white sea. The frigid air, blow.
Ing half gale, is filled with needielike
snow and icy crystals, which sting the
nesh like the bites Of poisonous insects
and sift through the finest crevices The
sun, low down in the southern horizon,
looks like frozen globe, with halves,
crescents and bright prismatic bars en-
circling it.
Great herds Of range cattle, which
roam at will and thrive ON the nutri-
tious crosses indigenous to the north
ern slope, wander aimlessly here and
there or more frequently drift with the
wind III vain attempts TO find food and
shelter, moaning 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
one OF these awful billiards, with the
temperature down 10 30 or 90 degrees
below zero, unless rescue Is speedy.
Yet such conditions frequently exist
III this latitude as they did for 10 days
in November, 1896, when it seemed as
If the elements had conspirod to bring
about another ice age and annihilate
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. 1, at about
the hour Of sunset, there was change,
which experienced plainsmen interpret
ed as favorable 10 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 tAe first well
come sight Of the gentle breath. But il
was not until 1895 p. m. that the first |
influence was felt. First, puff of heat,
in comparison with what |
bad existed fer two weeks, and we ran
TO our instrument shelter to observe the |
temperature. Up gees the mercury. "a |
degrees in seven minutes. Now the |
wind has ccIne with 20 mile velocity. |
Now the cattle stop travelling and, with |
turned toward the wind, low |
With satisfaction. Weary with two
weeks standing on their feet they lie |
iown in the snow, for they know that
heir salvation has come, that now
heir bodies will not freeze to the
ground.
The wind increases in strength and
warmth. 1t blows now in one steady
oar; the temperature has risen to SO
legrees; the great exparise Of snow, 80
nches deep Oh level, is becoming
lamp and honeycombed by the hot
vind, and we retire satisfied that the
chinook" is genuine and lasting one.
Twelve hours afterward there are
are brown hills everywhere; the plains
re covered with floods of water. In a
ew days the wind will evaporate the
and the roads will be dry and
ard Were it not for the chinook
7inds the northern slope country would
OF be hahitable, nor could domestic
survive the winters. limited
tates Weather Review.