my j i Se a Bras 
134 AQUEOUS PHENOMENA OF THE PRAIRIES, 
for a succession of mornings and would number many repé 
in the course of every winter. The writer counted a do 
exhibitions of this kind before one winter was half gone. 
weather, a perceptible thin vapor comes on at night, not uncom 
ly, when the air has a stillness favorable to the growth of th 
leafage. In certain covered situations, where moisture rises, 
webs are changed to a lace-work of crystals, the length and d 
cy of which would be incredible to one who never lived in 
climate. Ina cellar stair way, the plastering and shelf and í 
article on it were soon robed with a polar-bear fur of i 
ments, so long that the smaller articles lost their identity 0 
It is well known that the fine porous soil of the West has a 
i 
longed drought is wonderful, especially along the beaten 
roads.” Fissures over an inch across have been measured. 
the subsoil can retain any moisture, with such openings 
its heart, is a mystery. On the high treeless rolling p 
ever, at the summit level between river systems, water is! 
tained at a depth of from fifteen to twenty feet, though no 
in sufficient quantity. The manner in which wells are 
the supply of mills, in such a situation, is worthy of pub 
A shaft is sunk, say thirty feet, and from the bottom ga 
drifted in various directions, in the style of a mine, 
to the length of a hundred feet. Thus, numerous very S 
are struck, which, all together, give a large supply of w 
workmen report these veins as occurring at somewhat . 
tervals, and as indicated by a root-like mass of dar 
it is affirmed, too, that they follow one general direc! 
one instance at least, said to be transverse to the surface ¢ 
In this connection, reference may be made to the 
cryptogams that penetrate almost every inch of the 
gray clay beneath the top soil in that prairie region, 
in all similar districts. This vegetation, threadli 
stringlike, is coated with dark discolored earth, 
dead, the thread lying shrivelled, black and loose in 
cal cavity ; but the writer has found the filaments ap 
and living at a great depth — even to the depth of 
his memory is not at fault. mes 
One very common peculiarity of the surface Mm 
