as to tear one's clothes into shreds. This is not caused by any
difference of temperature, but by a violent compression.

There is a peculiar wind that occurs in Switzerland, often, between the
months of November and March. These winds last from two to three days
and are of great violence--especially near the mountains. They are warm
and dry and are caused by an area of low barometer and an ascending
current of air occurring at some point north of the Alps, which causes
the air from Italy to flow over the Alpine range, causing a tremendous
precipitation of snow and rain, which not only takes the moisture from
the air, but sets free in the form of heat the energy that was stored in
the process of evaporation, and this, together with the compression of
the air as it flows down the slope of the mountains, makes it hot and
dry. This wind is called the "Fohn."

There is a similar condition of things existing on the eastern slope of
the Rocky Mountains which has a modifying effect upon the climate of
parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, also extending up into British
America. This wind, which is here called "chinook," arises from causes
similar to those that are active in Switzerland that give rise to the
"fohn" wind.

There is a wind called the "blizzard" that is felt most keenly in
Montana and the Dakotas during the winter, which is exceedingly cold and
lasts sometimes for a period of 100 hours. The temperature falls at
times 30 or 40 degrees below zero and the wind maintains a velocity of
from forty to fifty miles an hour. These winds spread eastward as far as
Illinois, but not with the same severity, and they move southward to the
Gulf of Mexico, spreading over the States of Texas and Louisiana, and
are there called "northers." It is exceedingly dangerous to be caught in
a blizzard in the Dakotas, where the wind reaches its greatest velocity
and the cold its lowest temperature--especially when the wind is
accompanied, as it frequently is, by severe snowing. By the time it
reaches the Gulf States it is very much modified as to temperature, but
it is a very disagreeable wind in that portion of the country, because
of the exceeding dampness of the air. One would be much more comfortable
in dry, still air, even if it were many degrees below zero, than in an
air freighted with moisture, although the temperature has not fallen to
the freezing point.

There are hot winds called by different names according to the
localities