SUDDEN RISE OF STREAMS. IOI 



not only to secure, but to protect them. Every approaching 

 storm should be regarded as a possible waterspout, and full 

 preparation made to meet it. The effect of such a quantity 

 of water, poured out upon the high plains, and rushing into 

 the ravines, can more easily be imagined than described. 

 Depressions in the surface, scarcely noticeable in dry weather, 

 become in a few minutes raging torrents; ravines ordinarily 

 dry, become impassable rivers; and valleys, even though one 

 or more miles in width, are flooded to the depth of many 

 feet. Fortunately these storms are restricted in area, but 

 unfortunately their disastrous floods are not confined to the 

 vicinity of the occurrence. The flood moves on, carrying 

 trouble, delay, suffering, and loss of life in its turgid waters, 

 until they are finally lost in some of the great rivers of the 

 plains. * 



The most likely season for the occurrence of these 

 storms, Colonel Dodge says, is during the months 

 of June and July ; but they may occur at any time of 

 the year. People may, however, spend a long time 

 camping out upon the plains, upon the borders of 

 streams, and so forth, without any accident. This 

 tends, as he points out, 



"to carelessness, and sooner or later meets its reward, if 

 not in actual loss, at least in a thorough drowning out " 

 " but the most careful plainsman cannot always be prepared 

 for thunder from a clear sky, nor arrange for a flood when 

 not a cloud is to be seen." 



These events become, however, still more serious, 

 if they take place in the night time, as they often do, 

 \vhen the wearied travellers are wrapt in slumber, and 

 have turned in, totally unsuspicious of evil. Colonel 

 Dodge thus describes one of these nocturnal floods 

 occurring to his military camp 



* The Hunting Grotmds of the Great West, by Col. Richard I. 

 Dodge, U.S.A., 1877, pp. 8183. 



