Description of Ten New Species of Fossils. 



79 



It would be difficult for any one to assign a single reason why clear- 

 ing away a forest would interfere with the precipitation of rain, and 

 we are not aware that any one has undertaken the task, and it is as 

 well probably to ascertain the 'fact before hunting up the theory. The 

 Mississippi valley is supplied with rain from the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 if forests controlled the precipitation, then we would expect to see the 

 clouds wrecked in crossing Arkansas and Tennessee, and light smooth 

 sailing over Illinois with rarely or never a shower. But as the forests 

 have nothing to do with the quantity of rain fall, and there is no fall- 

 ing off in the precipitation in the eastern or central part of the conti- 

 nent, we need not borrow trouble for this locality. 



In the Cordilleras where lakes have been drained and important 

 orographic changes have taken place in the later Tertiary period, 

 coming down to a very recent date, we find abundant evidence of a change 

 in the climate, and just such a change as geological causes are ex- 

 pected to produce. But it would require too extended an article to 

 fully review our author upon this region, and the interested reader is 

 therefore referred to the book itself. The changes of climate that have 

 taken place in Europe and Asia during and preceding the historical 

 period, are dwelt upon at great length, and shown to be the result of 

 causes over which man has had no control. When great lakes are 

 dried up, or drained or diminished in area, there is less surface for 

 evaporation, "and consequently less rain falls in the vicinity; the eleva- 

 tion of a mountain range may change the course of the winds so as to 

 materially interfere with the precipitation of rain over a great extent of 

 country, and this seems to have occurred in South America; and other 

 geological and cosmical changes may materially interfere with the 

 climate of a country; but it is not within the power of man to effect 

 the temperature a fraction of a degree, or the annual rain-fall a fraction 

 of an inch, by cutting down or planting trees. 



DESCRIPTION OF TEN NEW SPECIES OF FOSSILS. 



By S. A. Miller, Esq. 



Cyathocrinus crawfordsvillensis, n. sp. 



Plate III., fig. 1, natural size. 



Catyx cup-shaped, about as wide as high, plates slightly convex, 

 and sutures well defined. 



