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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1886)
THE WEST SHORE. 210 conuonsea again m lower altitudes, this neat, latent away up in the lofty peaks, now comes out from its hiding place, and the dry nnd warm nir proceeds to business by licking up the snow, not leaving behind even the mois ture caused by iU melting. We nre speaking now of the wiutor. Not much heat can bo lost in contact with the drv snow, and what is lost hv radiation into sitaco may be made up by the heat of the sun, even in tho short days of winter. Some other considerations ronmiu to ho noticed As I have just said, tho time is wintor. In the long, molt ing days of early summer, over tho dissolving snows of the ravines and warm slopes, over thousands of foaming torrents and countless rivulets, tno air, instead 01 gain ing hent, now loses it by tho reverse operations of lique faction and evaporation, and thus chilled it falls on the ill-fated potato patch in tho form of Juno frost This matter of heat being absorlicd by thawing and sot freo by freezing is one of common experience. Tho chilly feeling of a March or April day iB shivoringly in tho memory of all of us, who, m early lire, braved tno in clement skies of Ontario. And some of us havo known the farmer's plan of saving his potatoes by carrying water into tho cellar on an extra cold night- tho water giving off in tho process of freezing sufficient heat to save the vegetables. Of courso tho process does not go ... i t? : on ad infinitum. 15ut tlio process 01 noni uisapiM-aniig by the rarefaction of air and becoming sensible again on re-condensing-this is not so much within tho range of our daily experience. The falling of a barometer 1. fore a Btorm is duo to tho rarefaction of the air, and wo have all noted tho increasing coolness at such ft time, though almost invariably this is accompanist by tho formation of clouds wlncli quicKiy smu ...... source of heat, the sun, so that tho lesser cause of cool ,.ssis obscured by the greater. Th.me who have as conded mountain jeaks have observed, first, tho rarity of the air, and second, tho coolness. They may consider if the latter is caused by the former, as jmiri hit is not always Vro,,l,-r hoc Suppose they are not related as cause and effect, but only accidentally. Then, first, why is it warmer near the .ea-level? It can not to the earth . . . i. ..:... l. for then, a llllin plain, or simply which " , even a" mountain peak, might to a. hot a. o owloM warm winds can oomo from anow-olad mountain. When Sir Alexander MacKonaio first wintered on the Pence river, away up in lntitndo fifty-nino degree, liko a mc on.l lUlloa look ing on mind's ryo over tho uivut Pacific, he saw tho striking effect of these southwest winds and noted in hit journal that tho ocean could not lm far away. Little did ho think that nearly six hint, drod miles of rough mountains lay 'between him ami it warm shores. This was in Wl i romamed mo mi ferenco tietwoon tho effect thero at the mouth of Hnioky river, whero tho snow disappeared in a few hours, and at Fort Chipewyan, on Lako Atlmlmnen, three hundred mile further east, whero no thaw occurred, though tho wind brought delightful, clear weather. It is only a few years since one of those indefatigable slave of nature, Gorman dootor-what should wo know but for tho (ler. man doctors? -worked out a nnthf-maticnl uemoiislra tion of tho amount of heat made latent by rarefaction In tho higher altitude and regained by condensation ; nnd, still more, tho amount of hwt caus.nl by tho preolpila tion of moisture ns tho wind rise up tho los of tho mountain. This calculation, I may say, seem to havo 1km.ii undertaken to solve tho sainn problem in Kuroi, as they have, it seems, Chinook winds under the lee of tho ii l ii.o ......tuinH of Norway, only Chinook is not tho Gorman name of it It i id that even th west cast of Greenland in visited by such a wind, coming over the elevat.nl lands of tho" interior. These wind oomo from tho south est fur away over tin nn, "1 aro not oooled by the elder current along the cast in. side tho Japan current Wo havo constantly to remem. tor tho Irenes that prevail in our idea of heal and oohl Two quite different atandard prevail, ouo tho ii... i... ii. ..il.nr our fiHiliiiu. In summer a mno of forty degree F. i l'lB I"" "' ''"""'I lH,i"1 to tio pleasant while, a we all know, anything near arru in winter is bracing ami delightful. Hut watr free... and snow molls, not by our filing but by lh tlirr mmnofcr. Thirty-fivo degree V. with dry air I quite .uflleiont to remove six inehe of new fallen .now. And tlinan winds constant They al ternate with their contending brother, from tho north, .i I .1 winds mtiMidiliU around thn whole IHIR lunr " . " , .i-i i . globe. The great fertile tolt lie just on the border nature doe noi wi - tuuvimrai rnreni - mi ir ior einiui"ui w . B . , . . , ... ,.rivM. .,! .hen no ir W"J I" - .. . . ... ... .... got a chance-ueat .. ot iUp(,ruill,tt. u, c.. atunuon u - the re-condensing tae. p. ... - , .,liuh now ,.,,, np ,..n ,er . ... all of it Nature i. not a banker, andknow no, g rf hl Kven discount When a spring b ClZ Tn remote ago. -geological ge-thr. must have dormant When you winu up j - -,1H, lhe Mtn. cilimtio oondition. tM ni warm . .toring np the force exerted ny . - -- , atonng P - " the fl,rca again, rTJ. I bare dwelt at ..me . . . m t tt m a cifiowimkdry U a degre prulmbly lori.i.id.ng lorn., irrowth, tho me ooldr ni .winiwr wn.. .- I iliLtttt (frill hi K uie friction: of course, I bare dwe, at .me - - f ImW M , pKr,,,of iTgth on thU point t oe in t w 2'. frost to m-slify th too ardent llamo of our long Iin,rlulitv i ma..if.Hl, 1 .-t,tf",r . ,.lUv. which would utU wi- parch lh tend-r r. oioctod from tho refusal U, ...," , umw w a
