WINTER WEATHER 



77 



CATTLE DRIFTING BEFORE THE STORM. 



by moonlight from a successful hunt after mountain sheep. The ther- 

 mometer was 26 below zero, and we had had no food for twelve hours. 

 I became numbed, and before I was aware of it had frozen my face, one 

 foot, both knees, and one hand. Luckily, I reached the ranch before 

 serious damage was done. 



About once every six or seven years we have a season when these 

 storms follow one another almost without interval throughout the winter 

 months, and then the loss among the stock is frightful. One such win- 

 ter occurred in 1 880-81. This was when there were very few ranchmen 

 in the country. The grass was so good that the old range stock escaped 

 pretty well ; but the trail herds were almost destroyed. The next severe 

 winter was that of 1886-87, when the rush of incoming herds had over- 

 stocked the ranges, and the loss was in consequence fairly appalling, 

 especially to the outfits that had just put on cattle. 



The snow-fall was unprecedented, both for its depth and for the way it 

 lasted ; and it was this, and not the cold, that caused the loss. About the 

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