292 CLIMA TIC CHANGES IN THE PRAIRIE REGION. 



tion nor cause us to neglect to follow up the good work so zealously begun, for 

 we know not what high reward such earnest labors may meet with, and, even 

 though we cannot discover any tangible law by which this is governed, there is still 

 much left to acquire that will greatly repay us for our sacrifice in this behalf. If 

 there be no similarity between certain periods we will still have gained a great 

 point — we will have proved this as a fact and ascertained how this branch o* 

 nature works, for at present we are in the dark in this matter; yet, what facts we 

 have tend to prove that the changes are endless and of infinite variety, and it 

 would seem that the best purposes of nature were obtained from this system, for 

 thereby the grateful showers are the most evenly distributed over the earth. 



By the inauguration of the present Weather Bureau more knowledge has been 

 gained in this department in a few years than was ever before known. The 

 work of the past, however, is not to be depreciated, because the present has 

 greater facilities. All enlightened people should be interested in these greater 

 facilities, and, so far as they are able, lend a hand in advancing to them a greater 

 degree of perfection. What we want now is cooperation on the part of the gath- 

 erers of scientific information the world over and then a combined and universal 

 weather corps with facilities for extending its simultaneous labors over all impor- 

 tant sections of the world, on sea as well as on land. It cannot be expected that 

 so great a work as this would be accomplished in a few months, or even in a 

 number of years, yet steps may be taken towards its accomplishment, and year 

 by year we can advance our stations to new grounds and form combinations and 

 awaken sympathy and zeal on the part of those who at present are ignorant or 

 indifferent as to scientific matters. Only by such extended and united efforts can 

 we fully understand the complete weather system of our planet, and it is to be 

 hoped that the controlling spirits of the world will have sufficient interest and 

 sympathy in the matter to arouse their zeal on behalf of so worthy a cause. 



Isaac P. Noyes. 



Washington, D. C, April, 1878. 



ON CLIMATIC CHANGES IN THE PRAIRIE REGION OF THE 



UNITED STATES. 



THE EFFECT OF DISBOSCATION ON CLIMATE, AND THE RELATION OF FOREST GROWTH 

 TO ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. 



BY COLONEL HENRY INMAN, OF KANSAS. 

 [Continued from July Number.] 



It appears, however, to be unquestionably true, that the destruction of forests 

 has within strictly historic times, wrought desolation in regions where the soil is 

 inherently fertile and which once bloomed with all the splendor of a garden ; dis- 

 tricts that once were the scene of a busy population, and where mighty cities 

 provoked the admiration of the civilized world, but which are now only howling 



