Absence of Deserts in the United States 79 



selves with vapour, insure a never failing supply of water to all 

 that portion of the plain which lies contiguous. Thus every 

 thing is provided, and nothing left to chance. Elevation, moun- 

 tains, contiguous oceans, and internal reservoirs, all co-operate to 

 insure to the territory of ,the United States a constant supply of 

 moisture. The native fertility of the soil is therefore great, and 

 yields to the wants of man with certainty and abundance. This 

 supply of moisture is well tempered, and rarely pours forth in 

 excess. In some countries, particularly in the north of Europe, 

 in England and Ireland, the crops oftener fail from excess of 

 moisture, than a deficiency. The grain blights in the field, or 

 moulds and rots in the granary, and acquires a musty smell and 

 flavour, which takes away its merchantable character, and dis- 

 qualifies it for the fine breads. Our seasons, fortunately, are just 

 moist enough to give perfection to vegetable growth, without in- 

 juring it by excess : just regular enough to exempt us from all 

 the labour of artificial irrigation, and leave the air dry and elas- 

 tic enough to enable us to preserve all our vegetable productions. 

 Happy country ! where the elements hold so steady a balance ; 

 where rains prevail to mature, not to injure vegetation ; where 

 the sun shines to ripen, and not to parch up verdure ; and where 

 a clear, elastic air gives spring to the animal frame, and vigour 

 to all nature. 



Where deserts exist, they not only preclude vegetation, and 

 consequently population in the districts where they prevail, but 

 exert a baneful influence upon all the neighbouring regions that 

 are inhabitable. They absorb the moisture from them, and ren- 

 der vegetation very uncertain. The heats that steam from the 

 deserts, enfeeble and stint all that has life and growth in the 

 adjoining districts. Siroc winds prevail, collect the deleterious 

 matter, heated and active, from their parched surface, sweep the 

 neighbouring countries, carry languor, disease and blight in their 

 train, and convert all that is green into a brown desert. Hordes 

 of locusts seem by nature, associated with the deserts ; rise in 

 clouds, warp upon their winds, and like a deadly blast, couch 

 upon the adjacent countries, and destroy all that is verdant. It 

 results, therefore, that deserts not only mar the habitable globe 

 to the extent that they prevail, but inflict upon the adjoining 

 countries, all the evils of famine, uncertainty, and disease ; thus 

 limiting the numbers, the comforts, and the power of man. 



