The Press., 1897-03-11
NORTH DAKOTA LETTER

the weather, an old but ever new theme of conversation and speculation for all classes of the people and certainly there has been abundant opportunity for wealth CT talk all this winter. Not since the sea- son of 1880 and 1881 have we experienced such ah early and stormy time as we have had and continue to have.
 At this writing we are having furious storm. It began suddenly from the south and southeast yesterday, and showed in sheets of flakes all day. We had been without trains and mail for several days j; and only the day before, about noon, did the rotary blow, followed by train, get in. It was a very pleasant day. The train went back in the evening so as to make its Tecaiar trip the next day. The rotary worhsa its way down hele from Leeds, clearing side tracks, and here the storm st1u-x it, not far from nine o'clock It wentNen as far asrrCarrington, where it met the regular train. There is Y there, and the train turned and followed the TO- tary back to Jamestown. The roads have been blocked so many times, and the cuts are getting to be so deep, and the road bed so full, that it does not take much of blow. even when there is no f1esh snow, to blockade them. It is impossible to keep them clear all the time, either the main line, or the branches.
 Our line is a branch, and since the first snows came we have had train up one day and down the next. For some time, when they have been able to run at all it is after this fashion-the rotary, pushed by one, and sometimes two engines, clears the trark; the train follows, drawn by two engines, the head one having the old style snow plough. It is not safe to send out a tfair, passenger or mixed, without the rotary. On the main line all passen- ger trains are preceded by it, and drawn by at least two heavy engines, and this, no matter in what direction the movement is. The Dakota lines employ a large force to keep the tracks clear, and to run the trains. A large number of men thus find employment who are usually idle Engineers have all they can do. These rotary blows l am not able to describe and perhaps 1t is not necessary. They are very heavy machines, having very pushed into the drift, and turns with tre mendous swiftness and pow CT, as 1t bores its way into it under the pressure of the steam. The snow is th1 own from it tC one side track in vast cloud, fin the form of big stream of water pouring from g huge wheel swiftly revolving. The snow can be thrown to either side of the track It can bore its way through the biggest and most compact drifts, and it will cut out at ..s~ 1st ten feet.---.- .--.-
 Our first snow, of any considerable amount, came the last two days of Octo Der, and from that time to the present there has been one continuous series ot storms, with brief intervals between. We have experienced the effect of ''storm pc riods' or "reactionary" storm periods, by the weather prophets. If they haven' hit it in the one period they have in the other.
 l As is generally known, November was an unusually stormy month, and tht storn seemed to culminate near Thanks giving into one of the worst, for the force of the wind and amount of snow, that ha. been experienced in this region. Fortu nately it was not so intensely cold as it is many times with such storms. Still much stock perished and number of hu man lives were lost. Trains were drifteC in between stations on main lines, anC had the storm continued much longer in tense suffering would have followed. 4 band of some sixty or more of our 1ndi ans were caught out in it, in the hill southwest of Darlington, as they wer' returning from visit to the White Eartl reservation, think it was. They wer of all ages, from infants to old people but fortunately no lives were lost, thougl a number of their ponies perished. Tn agent at the fort was informed of thei situation and he had rescurers sent t them from Darlington as soon as possible They were taken in there and cared fo until a train could be got through, whel they were brought here, and finally t. their places on the reservation.
 Many towns were caught with scant supply of fuel, and here we had just abou exhausted the supply and were becoming anxious. It was some twelve days befor the line was open. In the course of
 week some twenty six carloads of coz and wood came in and we have had a sur ply since. A fuel famine is seriou matter in a country like this. We hay
 had number of blizzards since then, bu none with such serious results.
 There is great body of snow on tn ground. Streets are drifted full, an some have been impossible all winter
 It is of little use to clear them, as tn first wind fills them again. Houses, barn and out-buildings have been showed in S
 that it is difficult to care for stock, an
 to get out much In all the years hay been west do not recall seeing such
 body of snow as we have at this time. During the last year the state had
 great deal of moisture deposited. Tn
 spring was so wet that it was with th
 greatest difficulty that farmers could ge their crop in. In the Red River valle
 there was so much wet and mud that th
 wheat crop was very short and poo
 Devils Lake, which has been losing ii waters very rapidly the past few years
 rose some three feet before the winter St
 in. This indicates heavy rainfall. Nov : with large body of snow on the ground
 and the prospect of still much more b. } fore spring fairly opens, Dakota seem , destined to have her soil pretty we soaked. Already there are grave appr l hensions of destructive freshets along th
 rivers. There are certain tn he if snrin