| Show THE POISON WIND OF california THE nory NORI WESTER the northwest winds which annually sweep over the plains of california and the central i land between the rocky mountains and t the bei sierra nevada are among the peculiar features of the pacific they commonly set in toor towards ards the middle of april and continue through the spring and summer until the be turn of the aquin equinox 0 x in the first week of october they genera ly come in with foss toss which grow exceedingly heavy in the middle of the summer when hen thy sometimes blow for days the bun sun in full blaze and not a mist milt or obscuration to dull the sky ky and even when attended with heavy fogs these fogs often do rot tot rot for days pre prec CU rate petate hate a particle of moisture and am the sun in I 1 the clearest sky in midsummer seems to lose its heat beat before its rays can cian reach the earth triese these winds generally rise in the morning at least in such extra dry seasons as 1856 1836 and 1864 before 10 and go out before nag nightfall pitfall after an j of two or three hurs hurb of pleasant calm they rise again and continue all night till about sunrises sunrise when therb there is another tranquilization for several hours boure then they lift their voices again alain a little later than in the preceding morning and blow out half an hour earlier in the afternoon afternoons and so perform p rford a similar diminution at night again but each day they blow stronger until the third f fi arth or sixth day when there is a culmination of their violence and they will after that gradually less and less daily until they entirely et irely blow all their strength th away some of them are of five days duration od while others last ten ald aud aid even twenty ky day u if obliged to travel by stage sea or horseback and exposed expo ekpo ed to this ruffian wind particularly ticul arly ariy in a clear sky with its usual temperature of 46 deg a great depression of spirits ensues the skin becomes cold and dry the hair and whiskers seem to crisp and curl the bead throbs and aches the nose and earb eara tingle with nervous ings the eyes redden and run and the wiper is constantly rubbing and sopping the beak and peepers the lips and face crack or chap chaps and about as blue devilish a feeling comes over one as could possibly ins Eos possibly sibly be envied by anybody who likes to be e miserable 22 these winds have a terribly parching parc hing bing effect on growing vegetation particularly ticul arly the green pastures in the tulare lake country they are said by old hunters and herdsmen to almot almot visibly lick up and evajo rae the be waters of that dead level exposure al all who are caught ridin in that vicinity in such gales find difficulty in alighting from their horses after a few hours exposure an experiment was once tried while one of these desperadoes of boreas was on a midsummer bust of 50 miles an hour or they biow blow at times at that violent rate and it was found that a gallon of water in six hours exposure in a shallow vessel madried ws wa dried up to five eights of its normal quantity and the temperature of the air had bad fallen at the pivot of the gale 15 degrees from that of its commencement three hours before the desiccating aridi hied fied pulverizing ver izing effect on our california soils of the northwestern northwesters north with their clouds of dusts dust is one most disagreeable features of the climate of the pacific domain and exceeds that ot of the scorching buns buna these winds were exceedingly severe in 1855 ond 1856 those of nf 1864 4 from march to appear to have extended from the columbia river to san diego 1 and were felt as far east as great silt lake the native californians Califern lans ians call them polon poloa winds giom their not only drying the face but sometimes swelling it as if by the venom of fish sickness S F Bulet bulletin ln READING AND THINKING this is emeha the age of reading but is it one of thinking also our grandfathers bad fewer books still fewer newspapers and no eyster of popular popular lecturing yet what hat they acquired they had ad time mentally to digest and so became sounder men when bacon said that reading made the correct man but conversa tion only a ready one he meant the reading of a more thorough age than this what conversation was then common reading Is now men read light and easy books instead of talking with their gossips and aln gain ain very little it any more improvement the true end of books or een eten of grod newspapers is not merely to gratify curiosity but to supply facts and principles which may be laid away in the minato mind midd to be drawn upon suase subsequently vrho bently as exigencies of life demand he who reads without digesting even ithe learns bow how to think never las lias a stock of peas i aas on hand to think about hea hes like the Is delites in egypt when they bad no co straw t make bricks but a careless reader is is also a bad tb thi iker ker the mii mit valid d of a thoughtful reader is B like the bolting apparatus of 0 a mill separating the bran from the flour coincident f with nith the act of reading the hasty reader p neglects leg lecta this duty dut y men blen forget what they ille lile lave lage read almost as soon as tb the e book or capen caper paper is s laid down they rarely or never exercise ud oe meal meoL it they dont think |
