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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1901)
. 16 Conservative. THE CHANGED CLIMATE. One of fcho reasons why diaries and memoranda , kept by the early settlers in the west should be preserved with the utmost care , is that they often contain data as to the climate of a period , before any scientific records at all wore made. Cold winters , wet seasons , unusual snowfalls and such things , made an im pression on the pioneers , and they were very likely to moke a note of them. There is a common belief that the cli mate of the plains region has undergone a marked change in quite recent years ; and there seems to be a question 7 ! whether this change has been brought / about by the novelties , introduced by the white man , or whether it is a geolo gic process , under way before the white man came , and therefore still in pro gress ; and pointing to still further de velopments in our climate , which it would be most interesting to be able to forecast. Of the fact that things ore not now as the first settlers found them , there can be no doubt. Major Hiram P. Downs , the first owner of the Nebraska City town-site , was positive from personal knowledge that the land west of Salt Creek wouldn't raise white beans ; nor presumably , anything else. Yet those vegetables , and many others , are culti vated with success for some distance beyond that water course. Mr. G. W. Martin , of Topeka , addressing an audi ence of Kansas pioneers , reminded them how , in the early days , they used to euro meat by simply hanging it in the open air ; which could not be done now ; and also for how many years , it was a constant struggle to make trees grow at all , which is now a matter of course. The buffalo-grass , curing on its roots in the summer months , has died out ; the Salt Lake of Utah has risen , it is said , some nineteen feet ; the desert of East ern Colorado is made to raise anything that is called for ; and so the catalog goes. Common report gives the credit for this improvement to the advance of civilization. The Indians say the white man brought the rain. Agassiz , it is said , predicted in 18G7 , that the build ing of railroads would cause electrical disturbances , that would increase the rainfall to a marked degree. Others call attention to the additional storage of moisture in the soil , as the iron sur face of the plains , baked in the summer sun and burned over regularly every year , is converted into plowed fields ; and to the gradual extension westward of trees. On the other hand , a previously oper ating cause is indicated by such passages as the following , from the notes of Alexander Mackenzie , who crossed the Canadian Rookies in 1792-3 : "An Indian in some measure explain ed his age to me , by relating that he re membered the opposite hills and plains , i. * OMAHA NATIONAL BANK , OMAHA , NEBRASKA , CAPITAL AND SURPLUS , $1,150,000 DEPOSITS , 6,300,000 DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS : J. H. MILLARD , Prest. E. W. NASH. EUASTUS YOUNG. GUY O. BARTON. N. W. WELLS. A. J. SIMPSON. O. W. MINK. W. WALLACE , Cashier. E. E. BALOH. Asst. Cashier. now interspersed with groves of poplars , when they were covered with moss , and without any animal inhabitant but- the reindeer. By degrees , he said , the face of the country changed to its present appearance , when the elk came from the east , and was followed by the buffalo ; the reindeer then retired to the high lauds. " Another remark of this explorer's , closely following , has no reference to climate , but is interesting as showing the right name of ursuslorribilis , com monly called the grizzly bear : "We , this day , saw two grisly and hideous bears , " says Sir Alexander ; and he identifies the beast by stating that its tracks were nine inches wide and of proportionate length , and that the In dians "entertained great apprehension" of this kind of bear , and never ventured to attack it , unless in force. Now , grisly is an old German adjec tive , and means much the same as hideous ; it is also very well rendered by the Latin appellative cited above. The I ferocious animal in question may well be called grisly , but he is no more griz zly than he is gristly. Grizzly means grizzledand would have reference to the color of the creature's coat : and this ap pears to be not at all uniform. Natural ists , no doubt , have specific character istics by which he is identified to them : but these are not known to the people who actually have to do with him. The inhabitants of the mountain region , who kill bears , and the taxidermists who mount them , do not , by any means , always agree among themselves as to whether a given specimen is a grizzly or not. A. T. R. THE AMERICAN TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK , CHICAGO. : DEPOSITS , $12,500,000.00 CAPITAL AND SURPLUS , 1,250,000.00 RECEIVES ACCOUNTS OF ' Banks , Corporations , Firms and Individuals , and pays interest thereon. OFFICERS : EDWIN A. POTTER , JOHN JAY ABBOTT , President. Ass't Cashier. G. B. SHAW , O. 0. DECKER , Vice-President. Ass't Cashier. JOY MORTON , FRANK H. JONES , Vloe-President. Secretary. J. R. CHAPMAN , W. P. KOPP , Cashier. Asa't Secretary. - /
