SOU Ole 
FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1884. 
COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 
TRAVELLERS in the west during the past few 
years will surely have met the statement that 
the rainfall of the dry region beyond the Mis- 
sissippi is increasing. Many western settlers 
express the hasty conclusion that the change is 
a steadily progressing one, and is due to the 
cultivation of the ground; and the more ven- 
turesome theorists explain the increase as an 
éffect of the better equalization of electric con- 
ditions of the atmosphere, as allowed by the 
laying of iron rails and the stretching of iron 
wires across the plains. The natural extension 
of these theories pictures the plains in the near 
future redeemed from their present unprofitable 
dryness by persistent occupation. It is well 
to set these unwarrantable fancies face to face 
with the matter-of-fact statistics lately pub- 
lished by the signal-service; for, whatever the 
doubtful possibilities of man’s power may be, 
the connection of such small artificial changes 
with variation of rainfall in the relation of 
eause and effect is in the last degree questiona- 
ble. There is not the least reason to think that 
the régime of the winds and rain can be per- 
manently affected so easily, or that any pro- 
gressive change is going on so rapidly as to 
make itself felt in a decade of years. 
As to the fact of variation in rainfall from 
year to year, there is, of course, no question : 
this is a most ordinary condition, especially in 
regions of moderate precipitation, where a good 
share of the annual fall may be gathered from 
a single storm. But, beyond this, the tables 
lately published show certain wide-spread va- 
riations of importance. Signal-service note 
no. vii., prepared by Mr. H. A. Hazen, dis- 
cusses the variation of rainfall west of the Mis- 
sissippi River, as shown in the records of nearly 
seventy stations from 1871 to 1882 inclusive, 
No, 63. — 1884. 
with the conclusion that ‘‘ many more years of 
observation will be needed, as well as many 
additional stations, . . . before any secular 
variation can be fully established.’’ ‘The tables 
show irregularities in the amount of rain 
roughly conformable over large areas. From 
1871 to 1873 there was a general deficiency ; 
about 1875, 1876, 1877, there was  corre- 
sponding excess; 1878 or 1879 was notably 
dry again; and from then to 1882 there was a 
general increase, but not above the previous 
maximum. It is therefore now altogether pre- 
mature to regard the variation of rainfall as 
any thing but what may be, in the present con- 
dition of meteorology, properly termed ‘ acci- 
‘dental ;’ that is, due to subordinate causes not 
yet determined, and not to any progressively 
increasing factor, like cultivation or rail-laying. 
‘¢Tuis brings them dangerously near the 
American category of ‘dead heads ;’ but, lest 
they should incur the additional reproach of 
being ‘ free lunchers,’ they will be allowed to 
pay a sum not exceeding two shillings for a 
‘square meal.’’’ This, from the comments of 
the London Times on the great American or 
Canadian promised hospitality to the British 
association, on its approaching visit to Mon- 
treal, has reference to the alluring pictures 
held up of the trip west on the Canadian Pa- 
cificrailroad. ‘ Allowed to pay two shillings’ 
—what a favor!—for.a meal in a crowded 
saloon of a crowded steamer, first table, second 
table, third table, as the promptness and skill of 
the traveller in ‘jumping’ a chair may justify. 
‘For a square meal’ in a tent, two hundred 
miles from the nearest cow, how gladly the 
easy-going English traveller will pay his two 
shillings, — money which would bring a cup, 
a saucer, a plate, a knife, a fork, in England, 
but in Canada’s backwoods restaurant may 
only secure a saucer. How happy our English 
cousin with a saucer, and a blushing rustic be- 
fore him to inform him that there is bread, 
