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Show H THIS IS A MILD WINTER BY COMPARISON M This Iiqb been a cold winter In the Interraoun- M tain country, but thcro nre records of colder woo- B thcr In this region. Tho winter of 1899-90 was B eo sevoro that cattle and sheep on the range per- H Ishcd by tho thousands, but even that frigid spell H , does not equal In Intensity of cold a storm In Jan- M uary, 18CG, an account of which ob related by Alex H Toponco of Ogden, wo find In a covcrless book, the H author of which Is unknown. H Mr. Toponcc, writing from Corlnne, Utah Tcr- M rltory, on March 8, 1873, and recalling IiIh own ex- M pcrlenco In tho blizzard of 18G6, Buys: H "I loft Fort Benton in company1 with Jerry H i "Mann, on my way to Fort Union, Montana, on No- H vembor 14, 1865 with an outfit of Blxty-ono wag- H oris, 787 head of oxen, twenty-llvo head of horses H .and mulcB, with soventy-flvo men. Wo arrived at H Fort Union December 1C, loaded and started on H our return Journey December 28, with weather fa- H vorablo for a successful trip. About forty miles H out, on a stream known bb Quaking Asp river, wo H ' were overtaken by a terrific snow Btorm on Jan- H I nary 8. Tho first day wo lost 150 head of cattlo H by freezing. Not being able to move, wo corral- H led our wagons, and built n stockade ns protection H from tho Indians. H "In ten days wo lost all tho animals except H two mules and two steers, which wo protected by H covering with buffalo robes and wagon sheets, H building fires and feeding them on bark, dried buf- falo meat and cornmeal. None of tho cattlo died H from starvation, but all wcro frozen to dtath. Mcr- H cury congealed and never moved for fifteen dnys. 1 "Tho horns of the cattlo cracked and tho pith H burst out and the tails of tho animals frozo In H horizontal positions. Tho buffalo gathered In tho timber and thousands of them frozo to death. They were so benumbed that they would mako but one Jump on the approach of man. On our Jouney to Fort Ilcnton to purchnso fresh animals, we subsls- H ted on buffalo meat without salt, our two mules H living on the same, and bark. I could write much moro of my experience In tliese hard winters, particularly of tho stock lost on Snnko river, Idaho, In tho winter of 18C4, when 1C0 of my unlmals frozo to death." 1 After reading of tho hardships of Alex Toponco tho average citizen will reach the conclusion that pioneer Ufa had n very rough sido ns well as Its h faBcinntlng features and that the cold of early Jnn- uary, this year was but a mild freezo when com- pared with some of the storms experienced in tho H early days by the freighters In tho Intermountnln H country. Ogden Standard. |