MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
135 
their general force of character, are not only good trees, but they are the 
trees to tie to. 
Montana has many conditions— one of which is pretty well described in the 
words of one of her old settlers. He was stationed on the northern border, 
well across the state and in view of the main range of the Rockies. “We 
have had all kinds of extremes here this spring, floods, and three feet of snow 
on a level on the third day of May. On the eleventh of May there was a high 
wind, a wind that blew from sixty to eighty miles an hour, and for five hours 
it blew at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour, this is a very backward sea- 
son.” 
And well it might be. 
But the respect I have for Montana weather in general, compels me to say 
that such weather is abnormal here and the freaks of a freaky season may 
' even be noticed in a state that possesses the best climate in the United 
States. 
■ A passing reference to the unusual snowfall is perhaps permissible. The 
above mentioned statement is correct; the snow did fall; but, it did not stay; 
it went, and quickly, too; it w£s literally licked up and devoured by the 
Chinook winds, doing but little damage— comparatively ; for spring lambs 
were coming then and often in unprotected quarters. 
Little things of this kind are not feared by mountain men, strange climatic 
conditions prevail here, and we may profitably study some of them. 
First, There is a great actual difference existing in conditions between 
Montana and the country to the east; country that is in the same parallel, 
between the western line of Montana and the Red River of the North that 
these differences of condition exist, is due solely to the environment of the 
mountains. 
Montana covers 145,000 square miles, and a good third of this is pretty 
much on edge. If this third were flattened out, there would probably be a 
third more added to the area of the state, fortunately for her inhabitants 
though, this will never be done — or at least, not until we have “lost interest 
in the subsequent proceedings.” This generous third consists of mountains 
whose mean altitude is over 8,000 feet above sea level. 
Meteorologists tell us that a large per cent of the air currents, which, 
whilst often making life a burden, are also compensatory in moisture control, 
are present in the first 400 feet above the earth, and if we have natural bar- 
riers to these currents projected to a height of twenty-five times this distance, 
we certainly enjoy the means for changing conditions which prevail in any 
country where the wind, pursues its even tenor for days at a time, unvexed 
by and bar to its progress. So it happens that there is but comparatively 
little wind, except in isolated cases; notably, the gateway of the Yellow- 
stone river; whence it debouches from the mountains and out into the plains 
country. In making this change, it passes from the great natural basin of 
the National Park— with an altitude of 6,000 feet— down to the low lying levels 
of the Yellowstone Yalley, much of which lies 4,000 feet lower. This river 
valley is a funnel, through which the air flows back and forth, the direction 
thereof depending on the temperature at either end of the canyon; it gives 
the residents therein, the full benefit of a steady breeze “the century round.” 
Per contra, that which in this case causes considerable discomfort, is really 
the mainspring of a great and growing businessr- live stock. Wherever 
fair soil and water are interassociated, alfalfa and wind are homogeneous 
terms. Then, too, the mighty besom of the air sweeps the winter ranges 
