474 METEOROLOGY. 



tlins clieckiiig or modifying' the reflectiou of her.t from the earth's sur- 

 fiice, &c. The fact is also noted that even where the prairie soil is not 

 disturbed, the short buffalo-grass disappears as the "frontier" extends 

 westward, and its place is taken by grasses and other herbage of taller 

 growth. That this change of the clothing of the Plains, if sufficiently 

 extensive, might have a modifying influence on the climate, I do not 

 doubt ; but whether the change has been already spread over a large 

 cijougli area, and whether our apparently or really Avetter seasons may 

 not be only part of a cycle, are unsettled questions. 



The civil engineers of this railway believe that the rains and humidity 

 of the Plains have increased during the extension of the railroads and 

 telegraphs across them. If this is the case, it may be that the myste- 

 rious electrical influence in which they seem to have faith, but do not 

 profess to explain, has exercised a beneficial influence. "What efl'ect, if 

 any, the digging and grading, the iron rails, the tension of steam in 

 locomotives, the friction of metallic surfaces, the poles and wires, the 

 action of batteries, &c., could possibly or probably have on the electri- 

 cal conditions, as connected with the phenomena of i^recipitation, I do 

 not, of course, undertake to say. It may be that wet seasons have 

 merely happened to coincide with railroads and telegraphs. It is to be 

 observed that the poles of the telegraph are quite frequently destroyed 

 by lightning; and it is probable that the lightning thus discharges in 

 many x^laces where before the erection of the telegraph it was not apt to 

 do so, and perhaps would not reach the earth at all. 



I trespass on your attention with these crude remarks, not knowing 

 but what I might possibly lead your thought to something of value in 

 connection with meteorological phenomena in this distant but interest- 

 ing region. You will readily see that I have no claim to the possession 

 of meteorological knowledge, in the higher sense of the term. 



I may state that during the past season, from April to July, wheat 

 was grown and matured, without irrigation^ at a point on the Plains 

 three hundred and seventy-six miles west of Kansas City, and two thou- 

 sand nine hundred and forty-eight teet above the sea. A sample has 

 been sent to the Department of Agriculture. This wheat, about meri- 

 dian 101, sustains the vievv's of the article I took the liberty of sending 

 you in March last on the " Climate of the Plains." 



