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influence as a desiccating wind is only felt in the interior, away from 

 the influence of the ocean. The foregoing are some of the principal 

 causes that give to this portion of the Pacific Coast its peculiar cli- 

 mate. The causes of variation in rainfall, temperature, and course 

 of the wind in localities can be ascertained by a series of local and 

 general observations, lasting for a sufficient period to warrant con- 

 clusions from the mean obtained. Such observations, if taken and 

 condensed, would be of value to the farmer, to the merchant, and in 

 fact add to the prosperity of every inhabitant of the State. They 

 would also be a contribution to science that would tend to "'the 

 increase and spread of knowledge among men." These observations 

 can be taken and recorded for a trifling expense. Everywhere in the 

 State where there are people, there are schools with teachers of more 

 than the average of intelligence. If the Legislature were to pass a 

 law that wherever a school is maintained throughout the year, it 

 should be provided with a rain guage, barometer, and thermometer, 

 and that the teacher should note and record at three given times 

 daily the amount of rain, pressure of the atmosphere, the temperature 

 of the air, and the course and force of the wind, and report these 

 monthly to the County Superintendent, to be by him transmitted to 

 the Meteorological Department of the University, there would, in a 

 few years, almost without expense, accumulate a mass of local 

 information that would be invaluable. If this were done, and also 

 made universal throughout the United States, in time the whole 

 mystery of the winds would be solved. 



From the observations and deductions of Humboldt, Franklin, 

 Henry, Espy, Coffin, Ferrel, Dove, Blodgett, Buchan, and Guyot, we 

 know' that while the wind is apparently the most capricious, uncer- 

 tain, and fitful of terrestrial objects, yet it is governed and controlled 

 by inexorable law. If it bring rain or dry weather, breathe in a 

 zephyr or carry destruction in a tornado, slowly waft the Santa Maria 

 to the discovery of a continent, put in motion a gulf stream, or 

 revolve the sails that drain the marshes of a Zuyder Zee, we now 

 know that each gale, breeze, or zephyr is moving and changing, in 

 efforts to restore the equilibrium of pressure with the force and speed 

 in the ratio of the exigency of each varying occasion ; in efforts to 

 restore that equilibrium for which the atmosphere is always striving 

 and which it never attains. We know that all its qualities of vary- 

 ing temperature ; its power to hold and give up moisture; to increase 

 and diminish in weight, are also controlled by unyielding laws ; that 

 many of these laws have been interpreted and are clearly understood ; 

 the others, we also know, science, by patient observation and intelli- 

 gent research, can discover and interpret. 



