THE WINDS THAT BRING OUR RAINS. 



505 



* Or Snow during these Months. 



These winds have been determined by taking each and every rain or snow 

 storm that has occurred during the past ten years and noting the direction of the 

 wind for three observations preceding ; the direction during the storm and for 

 three observations following it. 



The table shows that the winds that bring our rain, eight months of the year, 

 (from March to October) are southerly, while the dry winds are from northwest 

 to southwest, the mean being west which is the location of the mountains from 

 here. Invariably during the winter months, (the season of the smallest precipi- 

 tation) northeast to northwest winds bring our rain and snow storms, whilst the 

 dry winds are from west to south. 



Furthermore, if the " Rocky Mountain rain theory" is correct and the great- 

 er portion of the snow is absorbed, why does not Western Kansas have more 

 rain than the Eastern portion of the State, as it is in closer proximity to the 

 mountains: also what causes the annual June rise in the Missouri River? 



Much stress has been laid upon the fact of some old bridges being but ten 

 feet over the beds of streams in the mountain slopes as an evidence that the melt- 

 ing snow mainly passes off with the air; this may be true in a few isolated cases, 

 but we know that an immense volume of water goes down the Missouri River 

 every summer, to the Gulf; one of the most remarkable instances of which is 

 fresh in the memory of every one, viz : the great flood of last April. The cause 

 of this rise is well known to have been the melting of the snow in the mountains. 

 This vast amount of water according to natural laws must return by some source, 

 which is evidently the atmosphere, otherwise this section would become an arid 

 desert. 



In conclusion, I will cite two cases of recent date to disprove the "snow 

 theory." At the close of the winter of 1879-80 but little snow remained unmelt- 

 ed in the mountains, there being but four inches on the summit of Pike's Peak ; 

 still the rains during the following spring and summer (1880) were in general up 



