METEOROLOGY. 



Winter 25.40 



Year 48.20 



The moisture deposited during each season is expressed, as nearly as possible, by the follow- 

 ing registers at the same places: 



But these posts are on the borders of the dry plains lying between them, and known to have 

 a drier climate, so that to be within the bounds of probability the mean of the two lowest 

 records may be used for that of the whole region, which gives: for spring, 6.80; summer, 3.25; 

 autumn, 3.03; winter, 3.36, j'car, 16.55. 



The records kept for twenty-three months during the years 1855-56-' 57, at Fort Pierre, 

 give the following results: spring, 4.66; stimmer, 3.30; autumn, 3.81; winter, 2.27; year, 

 14.14 inches. 



This post is probably in the very driest part of the whole country, being at a distance from 

 the rains which descend upon the eastern part of the country towards the Mississippi, and also 

 from the local influences exerted by the Rocky mountains on the west. The records being 



unreliable at Fort Garrj', those of Fort Ridgley, Minnesota, latitude 44° 15', longitude , 



altitude 1,100 feet, maybe substituted, giving for the northeast borders, five years: spring, 

 7.39; summer, 8.73; autumn, 5.98; winter, 6.04; year, 28.14; and for region: spring, 7.76; 

 summer, 7.49; autumn, 4.63; winter, 4.36; year, 24.25. 



The only country of the old continent which can be compared with this in extent and 

 climate, as well as in some degree in natural features, is the empire of Russia, concerning which 

 the following facts are extracted from Tegoborski's " Commentaries on the productive forces of 

 Russia," published in London, 1855. 



"6. Region of the Steppes. — The steppes extend from the mouth of the Danube along the 

 shores of the Black sea, the Sea of Azow, and across the lower parts of the Don, the Volga, 

 and the Ural, into the plains of central Asia. It embraces the governments of Bessarabia, 

 Kherson, Ekatherinslaw, Taurido, (Crimea,) Stavropol, (Caucasia,) Astrachan, and the country 

 of the Don Cossacks." 



These all lie between latitude 49° and the Black sea, excepting Stavropol and Astrachan, 

 which extend south, between it and the Caspian sea, latitude 44°. 



The area embraced in these provinces is 244,525 square miles,"" and the remainder of the 

 surface southward, to latitude 40°, is mostly occupied by the Black sea and the Caucasian 

 mountains, which, of course, are to be disregarded in a comparison of plains, although they 

 might to some extent represent the Black hills and other mountains of Nebraska. 



Colton's Atlas. 



