The Rocky Mountain Wonderland — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Rocky Mountain Wonderland
John Stuart Mill · en
Cold and snow took possession of the ranges on one occasion while I
was making a stay in the winter quarters of a Montana cattle company.
There was a quiet, heavy snow, a blizzard, and at last a sleet storm.
At first the cattle collected with drooping heads and waited for the
storm to end, but long before the sky cleared, they milled and
trampled confusedly about. With the clearing sky came still and
extreme cold. Stock water changed to ice, and the short, crisp grass
of the plains was hopelessly cemented over with ice and snow. The
suffering of the cattle was beyond description. For a time they
wandered about, apparently without an aim. There were thousands of
other herds in this appalling condition. At last, widely scattered,
they stood humped up, awaiting death. But one morning the foreman
burst in excitedly with the news, "The Chinook is coming!" Out in the
snow the herds were aroused, and each "critter" was looking westward
as though good news had been scented afar. Across the mountain-tops
toward which the stock were looking, great wind-blown clouds were
flying toward the plains. In less than an hour the rescuing Chinook
rushed upon the scene. The temperature rose forty degrees in less than
half as many minutes; then it steadied and rose more slowly. The warm,
dry wind quickly increased to a gale. By noon both the sleet and the
snow were gone, and thousands of cattle were eagerly feeding in the
brown and curly grass of the wide, bleached plain.
This experience enabled me to understand the "Waiting for a Chinook"
picture of the "Cowboy Artist." This picture was originally intended
to be the spring report, after a stormy Montana winter, to the eastern
stockholders of a big cattle company. It showed a spotted solitary cow
standing humped in a snowy plain. One horn is broken and her tail is
frozen off. Near are three hungry coyotes in different waiting
attitudes. The picture bore the legend "The Last of Five Thousand,
Waiting for a Chinook."
It is "Presto! Change!" when the warm Chinook wind appears. Wintry
landscapes vanish in the balmy, spring-like breath of this strange,
hospitable, though inconstant Gulf Stream of the air. This wind is
extra dry and warm; occasionally it is almost hot. Many times in
Montana I have experienced the forcing, transforming effectiveness of
this hale, eccentric wind.
The completion of the big copper refinery at Great Falls was
celebrated with a banquet. One of the larger rooms in the new building
was used for the banquet-hall. Out to this, a mile or so from the
city, the banqueters were taken in a sleigh. That evening the roads
were snow-and-ice-covered, and the temperature was several degrees
below zero. A Chinook wind arrived while the banquet was in session,
and although the feast was drawn out no longer than usual, the
banqueters, on adjourning, found the snow and ice entirely gone, the
earth dry, and the air as balmy as though just off an Arizona desert
in June.