RAIK. 



115 



Hence it follows, that in Europe^ at a mediuin, 

 one third less rain falls than in North. America : yet 

 in his memoir already quoted, Mr. Holyoke men- 

 tions twenty cities in Europe, which, at a mean of 

 twenty years have had 122 days of rain, while 

 Cambridge has had but - - 88 



And Salem - - - - 95 



Thus a greater quantity of rain in fewer days evi- 

 dently indicates, that in America it falls in heavier 

 storms, in Europe in gentler showers ; and we have 

 seen, that facts accord with this reasoning. 



In addition to the facts here given by Mr. Volney, 

 it may be stated, that the quantity of water whicli 

 fell at Springmill, 15milesN,N. W. of Philadelphia, 

 on the Schuylkill, in the year 1787, was 32 inches. 

 By accounts taken at Paris during 66 years, viz. 

 from 1689 to 1754, inclusive, 92 feet 10 inches fell, 

 which makes the mean quantity of water that fell 

 yearly, amount to 16 inches 10 1-3 lines, only half 

 the quantity that fell in Pennsylvania in 1787, and 

 almost only one third of the quantity that fell in 

 1788, which was 45 6. 



Within a few years however, the quantity of rain 

 has certainly diminished in the United States. Our 

 farmers experience this change to their cost ; even 

 well -timbered and mountainous countries, suffer by its 

 deificiency. Thus, during the past season in Virginia 

 and North Carolina, great distress has been occa« 

 sioned by the absolute failure of springs, and lowness 

 of the waters, which obliged the farmers to carry 

 their grain in some cases to a distance of forty miles 

 to be ground. The lead-mines of Virginia ten years 

 since, were so filled witlv ^ater, as to cause new 



