280 THE RAINFALL IN 1896 DOANE. 



An examination of the records of the United States reveals 

 some interesting and important facts, which it may be well to 

 quote at this stage for the purpose of comparison. 



The greatest annual rainfall on this continent is recorded 

 at Greytown, the Atlantic entrance to the proposed Nicaragua 

 Canal. It there assumes the enoimous total of 240 inches (20 

 ft.), a figure which is only surpassed in the Western Hemisphere 

 on the Mexican Gulf Coast in the West Indies, by Guiana and 

 by the coast of Brazil. It is reported that from 7 to 10 per 

 cent, of the total annual rainfall may descend in one day. The 

 results of such a precipitation can be better imagined than 

 described ; dry river beds become torrents in a few minutes, the 

 water coming down in a wall several feet high ; marshes change 

 to lakes, and the power so quickly developed is necessarily very 

 dangerous to any work of man. 



The most remarkable rainfall is recorded at Cuyamaca Dam 

 in San Diego Co., California, about 40 miles east of San Diego. 

 During a storm ending February 27, 1891, the record shows 

 that 23.40 inches fell in 54 hours, of which 13 inches fell in 23 

 hours, and 7 inches in 10 hours. The elevation of the reservoir 

 is about 4500 feet above sea level. The highest surrounding 

 mountains are 6500 feet above sea level, and lie to the west of 

 the reservoir between its watershed and the direction whence 

 the storms come. The eastern boundary of the basin is on the 

 rim of the desert at an elevation of not over 5000 ft. The 

 topography of the country is such that a rain gauge at the dam 

 would not be likely to indicate the maximum precipitation on 

 the three peaks that bound the water shed on the west. The 

 most notable thing about the above remarkable rainfall, however, 

 is that the place where it occurred is within a few miles of one 

 of the very driest regions in the world. The average annual 

 rainfall at Indio, San Diego Co., a station on the Southern 

 Pacific Railway, about 50 miles east of the Cuyamaca Dam, is 

 given by General Greely as but 1.92 inches, and he says of this 

 and Camp Mohave, Arizona, where the average rainfall is but 

 1.85 inches : " These stations, doubtless, have the smallest known 



