THE SEASONS AFFECTED BY THE MARSHES. Iv 
tion upon which I will not venture to give any 
decisive opinion. But most assuredly, when 
the interior is dry, the seasons are dry, and vice 
versa. Indeed, not only is this the case, but 
rains, from excessive duration in the first year 
after a drought, decrease gradually year after 
year, until they wholly cease for a time. It 
seems not improbable, therefore, that the state of 
the interior does, in some measure, regulate the 
fall of rain upon the eastern ranges, which 
appears to decrease in quantity yearly as the 
marshes become exhausted, and cease alto- 
gether, when they no longer contain any water. 
A drought will naturally follow until such time 
as the air becomes surcharged with clouds or 
vapour from the ocean, which being no longer 
able to sustain their own weight, descend upon 
the mountains, and being conveyed by hundreds 
of streams into the western lowlands, again fill 
the marshes, and cause the recurrence of regular 
seasons. 
The thermometer ranges during the summer I 
months, that is, from September to March, from 1 
36" to 106" of Fahrenheit, but the mean of the 
temperature during the above period is 70". . 
