(£ocfy> QUounfain TDonbttfonb 



ing the heavy snow covering over the sources 

 of the Columbia and the Missouri before the 

 swift spring thaw appears. The Chinook is not 

 likely to create floods through the rapidity of 

 its action, for it changes snow and water to 

 vapor and carries this away through the air. 



The Chinook is nothing if not eccentric. 

 Sometimes it warms the mountain-tops and 

 ignores the cold lowlands. Often in snowy time 

 it assists the railroad men to clear the tracks 

 on the summit before it goes down the slope a 

 few miles to warm the muffled and discouraged 

 snow-shovelers in the valley. Now and then 

 a wind tempers the clime for a sheepman, while 

 in an adjoining valley only a few miles away the 

 stockman and his herd wait in vain for the 

 Chinook. 



The Chinook may appear at any hour of the 

 day or night. Occasionally with a rush it chases 

 winter. Frequently and fortunately it follows 

 a blizzard. Often it dramatically saves the suf- 

 fering herds, both wild and tame, and at the 

 eleventh hour it brings the balm of the south- 

 land to the waiting, starving birds. 



74 



