Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-04-01
CLIMATIC EXTREMES.
PARTS OF THE COUNTRY WITH ONE
REGULARITY OR ANOTHER.

PkHTS OF THE COUNTRY WITH ONE
REGULARITY OR ANOTHER.
The Tellowstons Has the Greatest Range
81 Tsnpssasare-Desshv valley the Hot
test R1see-Where IL Rains Every nay.
Over the Hill From Winter 70 Summer.
have run about the United States
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 tho mercury tumbles down to 80
degrees below zero, and it has been
known in summer to climb up to 120
degrees above. Here is an extreme range
Of 40 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 o water course
It is q popularity Of the extreme high
temperature in the arid regions that you
do not perspire Mt all-that is, you dc
not sensibly perspire. The moisture is
all evaporated from your skin as fast as
1t is formed by the extreme dryness of
the air. Tho heat is not nearly SO OPP
pressivc, however, as it is at q tempera-
turo Of so or 90 degrees along the At
lantic seaboard. If you are indoors or
under the shade Of o tree, you are quite
comfortable.
Anything that will break tho fierce
rays Of the sun is sufficient to relieve
you from all oppression from tho high
temperature. Travelling some years ago
across the hot, billowy plain of the great
basin Of tho Columbia with camping
party looking up route for q railroad,
we came to q huge columnar rock of
black basalt. The day was intensely hot
We stopped the teams, and, throwing
ourselves down on tho shady side of the
rock, we recalled the phrase in the Biblo
about "the shadow of great rock in q
| weary land" and realized that little
shade meant as much to the people of
| arid Palestine rs 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 tho 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. l read
| somewhere Of party of men who en-
tered the valley in July, knowing moth
ing Of tho 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 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
tho state Of Washington. 1t actually
rains every day in the year. and the
total annual precipitation is nearly loo
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 barriel
in the United States is that of tho Cas-
cade mountains, in Washington. In win
ter time the railway train tolls up tn
eastern slope of these mountains between
walls of snow higher than the roofs O
tho cars in q long winding lane scoopet
out by the rotary pillow. Once through
the tunnel on the Northern Pacific, o
. over the switchback on the Great North
ern, you suddenly leave winter behint
You, and, whirling down tho western
slope Of the mountains, in less than al
hour You meet the full spring. The gras
is green, waterfowl swim ON the river
and bays, the crows are holding thei
annual conventions in the tree tops will
much oratorical clamor, and when 20,
arrive ut Tacoma you find the flower
blooming in the dooryards. The chang
seems magical and is as great as IL 20,
should start from Chicago in Januar
and travel to the gulf of Mexico, yet tn
whole distance you have traversed {
bring about this wonderful transforms
ton is less than 100 miles.
Tho most peculiar climatic regio
with which am familiar is the Puge
sound basin, in the state Of Washington
Il is separated from the ocean ON til
west by the rugged snow clad range {
the Olympic mountains, and its easter
boundary is the still loftier range Of til
Cascades. The sound is connected wit
: the Pacific by the broad strait of Jua
de Fuca, and up this strait pours gres
volume Of moist air. brought by Il
Japan current from far out to sea. II
mountains Of Vancouver island on or
side and the Olympics on the other NAL
Of the strait an enormous funnel, an
the moisture laden winds are condense
against the cold, snowy ranges ON eith'
IA