Seventeenth Annual Meeting. 103 



There can he no reasonable doubt that the general settlement of the western portion 

 of Kansas would have a similar effect upon its rainfall, but it is not reasonable to expect 

 that western Kansas will ever boast of a rainfall equal to that of eastern Kansas. So 

 long as the eastern half of the State remains to the east of the meridian forming the 

 western boundary of the Gulf of Mexico, the south winds will cause it to receive much 

 larger supplies of vapor, lor condensation into rain, than will be received by the western 

 halt' of the State, which lies beyond the immediate track of the vapor-laden winds. It 

 must be remembered that climatic changes are exceedingly gradual, and a rain defi- 

 ciency or excess for a single year, or for two or three years in succession, must not be eon- 

 sidered as invalidating the law of general averages. Neither should the fact that the 

 rainfall upon the whole is increasing, induce settlersto break lands in the western third of 

 Kansas with the expectation of successfully raising the same crops as in eastern Kansas. 

 Such settlers will surely he disappointed. It is even doubtful if paying crops of any 

 kind can ever be continuously produced in that region. With an average before settle- 

 ment of about 15 inches per annum, the same percentage of increase as has been made 

 in eastern Kansas in thirty years would give less than 18 inches per annum — a quantity 

 entirely inadequate to maintain successful agriculture. 



OBSERVATIONS OF NOVEMBER METEORS. 



BY R. H. SHORT. 



On the 15th of this month, at 2 o'clock p. m., I was examining the sun's disk with a 

 glass giving a power of about 45 or 50 and embracing a held of view of three degrees, to 

 locate the relative position of the sun-spots then visible. After looking at the sun for 

 some five or six minutes, I saw a bright point of light, leaving no train that I could see, 

 cross the middle of the field. The sun was directly in its path ; nevertheless it was vis- 

 ible both while entering and leaving the field. The time it occupied in crossing the 

 field was a small fraction of a second. 



At the time I did not think much about it; I did not think a meteor could be seen at 

 all near the sun, much less to appear to cross its disk. About five minutes later, another 

 point crossed in almost exactly the same place. The apparent brightness and rate of 

 motion were also the same. I then left the telescope and looked all around the build- 

 ing, to see if there was anything that could produce such an effect by coming between 

 the glass and the sun. I was hardly willing to believe that these two objects were me- 

 teors, yet was not able to account for the phenomena in any other way. 



Being still undecided, I concluded to watch the sun for a while to see another if I 

 could. I had been looking for at least ten minutes, when a meteor, fire-ball, or some- 

 thing of the kind, crossed the field one-half of a degree from the sun. Its motion was 

 slow, compared with the first, but the direction was the same in all three cases, namely, 

 from southeast to northwest. This last was more distinct than the others, perhaps be- 

 cause of its distance from the sun's disk. Its apparent diameter was about that of Venus. 

 It crossed the field (three deg.) in not less than one-fifth of a second. Its brightness was 

 about one-half that of the sun, and color a shade of yellow. It left a train visible after 

 the meteor had left the field. A few minutes after, clouds obscured the sun and also the 

 western sky. It remained cloudy until about 5 o'clock. From 5 o'clock until sunset, 

 nothing comparable to meteors was seen. 



Between 8 and 9 o'clock i\ M.of the same day. I saw three bright meteors follow, as 

 nearly as I could judge, the same course as those that wen- sen in daylight. The radi- 

 ating point of these last three was from ;i point in the southern part of Andromeda. 



The following notices of extraordinary meteors are from "Kirkwood's Meteoric \s- 

 tronomv" : 



