On the Distribution of Rain in the Temperate Zone. 115 
known. Onur river banks are not calculated for such differences 
_ of level, and it is ruinous if a river like the Oder, which regu- 
larly proves the English saying, that a river is only a contrivance 
to build a canal in, suddenly sets up the Nile for an example, 
If an improved cultivation of the country has the effect of 
altering the fall of rain at certain epochs subject to the universal 
influences of the atmosphere, then the longer cultivated Europe, 
_ when compared with America, must show, under like conditions, 
greater conformity to rules in the distribution of rain than in 
America, and this is in fact the case.» The rain-curves exhibiting 
. tolerable accordance in the course of a few years, require in Amer- 
ica.a longer circle of observations, because single anuual’terms of- 
teu differ very strikingly. It is not impossible that. the coasts of 
the Mediterranean deprived of the woody covering, over their 
re show more clearly than formerly the contrast of their 
wet and dry seasons, and that in ten years of European eceupa- 
tion in Algiers more than one rainy day has been added to July. 
If the destruction of forests and the cultivation of the soil les- 
* 
, and the lady’s Vienna piang soon gets out 
“ountains, 90” of rain are. 
Within iny reach on. the | 
atorial currents change 
ly direction, ther 
vot supp 
, ssc inseam that the nearness of 
the east coast that which the sonth= 
t winds secures to the west coast. _ 
