320 
METEOROLOGY. 
The moisture deposited during each season is expressed, as nearly as possible, by the follow- 
ing registers at the same places : 
Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Year. 
Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. 
Fort Kearney 10. 80 12. 05 3. 82 1.31 27.98 
Fort Laramie 8. 69 5. 70 3. 96 1. 63 19. 98 
Fort Benton 4.92 1.00? 2.10? 5. 10 18. 12 
Means for the region 8.14 6. 25 3. 29 2. 68 20 36 
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, 3.35; 
autumn, 3.03; winter, 3.36; year, 16.54 inches. 
The records kept for twenty-three months during the years 1855-56-57, at Fort Pierre, 
give the following results: spring, 4.66; summer, 3.30; autumn, 3.81; winter, 2.27; year, 14.04 
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 Garry, those of Fort Ridgley, Minnesota, latitude 44° 15’, longitude about 
94° 47’, altitude 1,100 feet, may be substituted, giving for the northeast borders, five years: 
spring, 7.39; summer, 8.73; autumn, 5.98; winter, 6.04; year, 28.14 inches; and for region: 
spring, 7.76; summer, 7.49; autumn, 4.63; winter, 4.36; year, 24.25 inches. 
` 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, Ekathérinoslaw, Tauride, (Crimea,) Stavropol, (Caucasia,) Astrakhan, and the country 
of the Don Cossacks.’ | 
These all lie between latitude 49° and the Black sea, excepting Stavropol and Astrakhan, 
which extend south, between it and the Caspian sea, to latitude 44°. 
The area embraced in these provinces is 244,525 square miles,* and the remainder of the 
surface southward, to latitude 409, 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. 
