New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-02-01

everywhere along the line of the Big Storm. anil NOT
leave thousand miles cast of the Rookie tr,eIc.,
plain AS is the case now If abundant rain fen cast OF
the mount,in-. u does west of them. the timber
would bc there for It follows the moisture clear Mp to
the snow line and crosses the summit where the high
SHOWS supply sufficient moisture along the east side OF
the crest. The tree, stop where the moisture rain
belt stops every time, showing plainly that they are
result and not cause of moisture, as some would have
us believe.
A MOTHER false idea Is that timber prevents floods
10y rctarlng the melting of the SHOWS. The facts
are exactly opposite The Big Storm bring, to Dee
timber and the barren land alike. That which falls IN
the timber is like thick. level blanket and the timber
shades il. This snow is not melted by the sum- hut
stays just falls until the air warns mp enough in the
spring to cause it to melt Then it stops melting
night or day. and this causes the whole volume Of water
TO rush down 10 the rivers which rise torrents and
then to big floods ON the lower reaches.
Il was just these conditions that caused the famous
annual "unc rise in the Missouri River i'm the old
sc1mboating DAYS when the traders depended ON the
June rise for water to float the scrn-whcc steamers
that hurried up from St. Louis to Fort Benton every
year this very flood that came till June The
that fell the plains al along the Missouri lid
not supply this flood water it came from the high tim
bcicl valleys OF the Rookie where melted by the
warm June nr because the timber shaded il and it
could not be melted by the The snow that fell on
the plains all along the river was blown by the winds
into deep drifts in all the draws and low places and the
ridges were LETT bare just they every winter
This snow, which WAS (lnd is driitcd into deep, COM
pact bodies exposed to the full glare OF the sun; but
the surface presented is small So il mclts slowly, and
"a continuous stream runs steadily from every drift
until is gone On the plains these drifts much
smaller than they are in the high, wind-swcpt guchca
abo,C timber line in the mountains. Here the wind
blows often high eighty to a hundred miles
hour and it cleans all the of the exposed ridges
and piles into the deep gulchc Also, being from the
westward, it drops 1t the east side of the peaks,
where they break of sharp enough to cause an eddy IN
the wind
1t Is in such places that the wind builds the SNOW
cornice that every mountain is afraid Of for 1t
is "a top-hetvy mass Of snow piled to ccward by the
wind against the very top of % high mountain wall that
right angle 10 the wind direction. some OF these
snow coriccs weigh many tons and everyone Of them
lets go and slides down 81 roaring avalanche soon
as the sun warns up the least Bit These slides gather
al the snow they come TO, and carry it down into the
gulohcs, where piles up the deep drifts that the
wind has piled there already; SO that snowbank one
hundred more feet deep, from fifty to thousand feet
wide and from a few feet 10 mile more IN length j.
not the least bit uncommon in the high mountain
gulyhcs abo,e timber line. They never occur boI@9
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