318 B. N. A. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 

the district barren. Water had to be brought almost incredible distances, 
in wooden pipes. Trees were carefully planted, and nourished with the 
water so brought, and now the district may be termed the garden of the 
world, and is not dependent on water brought from a distance, but enjoys a 
steady rainfall.”* Iam informed by Mr. Groo, editor of the Salt Lake 
Herald, that the climate is still changing rapidly, he writes: “The lake is 
gradually rising, and has been for many years. It is perhaps four or five 
feet deeper than it was twenty years ago. This is doubtless due to change ; 
in the character of the seasons. Hach year the amount of rain that falls in 
this valley is greater than that which fell in the previous season; hence 
the streams of water which flow into the lake are larger. The water of 
the lake is not so strongly impregnated with saline matter as formerly, 
and not so much salt is found on the shores, a8 there was a few years 
ago.” Dr. Hayden, as far back as 1867, is able to write :—“ The settle- 
ment of the country, and the increase of the timber have already 
changed for the better, the climate of that portion of Nebraska lying 
along the Missouri, so that within the last twelve or fourteen years, the 
rain has gradually increased in quantity, and is much more equally dis- 
tributed throughout the year.”+ And again, in 1870, “ It is true that, 
over a width of one hundred miles or more, along the Missouri River, 
the little groves of timber are extending their area; that springs of 
water are continually issuing from the ground where none were ever 
known before; and that the distribution of rain throughout the. year is 
more equable.” { Mr. R. 8. Elliot states that there is a popular persua- 
sion in Kansas, ‘“ that a climatic change is taking place, promoted by the 
spread of settlements westwardly, breaking up portions of the prairie 
soil, and the covering of the earth with plants which shade the ground, 
more than the short grasses. The fact is also noted, that even where the 
prairie soil is not disturbed, the short buffalo-grass disappears, as the 
‘frontier’ extends westward, and its place is taken by grasses and other 
herbage of taller growth.’’§ 
745. The treeless plains of the western portion of the United States 
are estimated to have an area of 400,000 square miles; adding to this 
the plains north of the forty-ninth parallel, with a probable area of 
192,000 square miles, we obtain as an approximate total area of the 
great treeless plains of North America, the sum of nearly six hundred 
thousand square miles. The injurious effect of a treeless region so vast 
* Quoted by Fryer, loe cit. t U.S. Geol. Surv, Territ., 1867-69, p. 14, 
t U.S, Geol, Surv. Territ., 1870, p. 104, § Ibid., p. 455, 
