Of all lands and peoples is the roll-call of the storm-gods. Zeus the cloud-gatherer, lord of lightning. Adad-Ramman, the duplex, sender to the Babylonian plain alike of nourishing rain and devastating tempest. Jupiter of the rain; Thor, the thunderer; Indra, freer of the waters. Pulugu of the Bengal sea, before whose wrath the pigmy Andamanese cower low. Kilima, Mahu, Dzakuta. Pase-Kamui of the Ainus; Asiak who rules the air above the far-off northern ice. Tlaloc of Mexico, thundering from his mountain-top.

Man walks the earth, but is of the air. Everywhere he pays homage, not to the air itself of which he is unconscious, but to the powers which move within the air. He bows his head before wind and rain.

And what of Jehovah? Jehovah who poured the Deluge forty days and forty nights, and then sent the rainbow, his sign and pledge! Jehovah who came as a thick cloud upon the mountain and spoke to his servant Moses through thunders and lightnings!

2

In that part of the western United States which the storm now dominated, a highly civilized race of men had hung so many wires upon so many poles that hardly a landscape was devoid of them. These wires served many purposes. The larger ones supported bridges, and served for trolleys and conveyors. A very great number carried electric current for power, light, telegraph, and telephone. Others served as guys, fences, aerials, and clothes-lines.

A common quality of almost all these wires was that they were erected in the open air, wholly exposed to the atmospheric forces. Yet such was the ingenuity of these men, and the tenacity of steel and copper that even a great Pacific storm could discommode only a few of the wires.

In the heaviest winds the wires swayed easily back and forth. Rain served only to increase their weight a little, and then dripped off harmlessly. Snow was scarcely more effective. In the higher mountains the snow clung to the wires, and frequently built up to a diameter of several inches. The wires sagged somewhat beneath this load, but sooner or later the very weight of the snow overcame its cohesive power. At that moment a small amount of snow dropped off; this sudden change caused the wire to vibrate sharply and to dislodge most of the remaining snow. Thus relieved, the wire swung back and forth for a few seconds, and then settled down to receive its next load.