Year: 1872

Rocky Mountains 20 tho Alps.


The great snow storm of the 26th Of De-
cember, 1872, will not be forgotten in this
city while o single individual of its existing
inhabitants survives to tell tho wonderful story
to his descendants A wonderful story it is
whether we consider the extent of the country
covered by this tremendous nor'easter, the
enormous volume Of water discharged from
the clouds in its course from the Gulf States
to and far into the New Dominion, and from
the Great Plains to the Atlantic seaboard, up
to the Gulf Of st. Lawrence or whether we
consider it in connection with that most re-
markable atmospheric tidal wave of freezing
Arctic air from the far Northwest, which pre-
ceded this heavy tempest But embracing the
portentous warning of that cold tidal wave and
the extensive sweep of this mighty storm, to-
gether with the disastrous tempests on land
and sea which have ushered in this rough
Winter in the United States and Europe. and
from the Rocky Mountains to the Alps and
the Apennines, the subject assumes the highest
degree of importance to the people Of both
hemispheres.


Since the first of November-indeed, from
the middle of October-particularly on the
British islands, and along the southern coasts
of the North Sea and the Baltic, and thence
up the Rhine to the Alps and into the plains
of Italy, the season has been marked by many
storms and floods of almost unprecedented
property. Through the same period there
have been unusually heavy rains on the
Pacific slope from California to Oregon,
heavy early SHOWS on the elevated plateau of
the Great Basin. and notably on the lofty
mountains around Great Salt Lake, and
thence over all the Rocky Mountain chain,
from the extreme North down to New Mexico,
with o season of unusual frigidity over tho
Great Plains and o season from the Missis-
sippi eastward of extraordinary fluctuations
from stormy nor casters to dry and freezing
nor westers, and season of many ship
wrecks along the whole chain of the great
lakes and along the Atlantic coast to the
eastern front line of the West India islands
The storm of rain, sleet and snow which has
visited the country east of the Mississippi is
evidently connected with the great wave of
cold air which inundated the land on Sunday
last, and was preannounced by the HERALD on
the Goth inst. It is easy to see that this flood
of icy cold atmosphere descending from the
Northwestern sections on reaching the Gulf
Of Mexico, would condense the vaporous air of
the States bordering upon that inland tropical
sea, and produce the great precipitation of
rain which the Signal Service had predicted,
and which duly came. 1t is equally clear that
after the country this side Of the Mississippi
was covered with such Polar aerial mass the
moment any southerly or easterly winds, bear
ing the vapors of the Gulf or the warm Allan
tic, should set in towards the interior the effect
would be similar condensation in the shape of
rain and snow, wherever the two opposing hot
and cold atmospheres came together. This
would follow as surely as the blowing OF o
warm moist wind over o mountain or high
plateau, such as Mont Blanc or plateau Of
Russia, is the occasion of copious rainfall or
snowfall; for the late cold wave of which we
speak had really, as it were, erected over the
eastern half of the United States temporary
aerial plateau of low temperature capable of
producing great condensation by robbing every
vapor- bearing wind from the sea of all the
water it contained in its vesicles. Just as the
weather reports so beautifully foreshadowed,
and just as we might have expected in accor-
dance with theoretic anticipations, it appears
that on Tuesday night the volumes Of cold air
penetrating to the Gulf Coast gave rise to great
cloudihess, rapid condensation and the conse-
quent formation or an atmospheric depression
or low barometer. This storm centre, draw
ing for its supply Of air from the interior and
Atlantic States, induced northeasterly, east
erly and southeasterly winds from the ocean,
which brought the vapor for the snow storm
which has extended over the Northern and
interior States to Tennessee and Virginia,
while at the same time the Southern seaboard
States have had their heavy rainfalls. The
low barometer or storm vortex, as meteorolo-
gists call it, thanks to our Signal Service, we
are enabled to trace from its origin on
Tuesday, in the Gulf, northeastwardly
over the Carolinas, which it passed early
on yesterday morning Yesterday after
noon it was moving along the Virginia
and Delaware coasts and was rapidly
approaching New York, during which time
it was keeping up on its northern side the
water-charged northeasterly and easterly
winds from the Atlantic, and thus furnishing
an abundant supply of material for the snow
storm. In the lower latitudes of the country
the strata of intermixture Of the cold and warm
air not being sufficiently cold for the forma-
ton of snow, the Southern States have had


IL
northward the temperature has been so low as
to give the precipitation the crystalline form
Of snow.


The storm centre from the Gulf has moved,
il appears, along the seaboard on parallel