Butte record. (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858, 1857-05-23
Yearly Amount of Rain.


are strictly accurate, and will be found
very interesting:
The recent drouth has naturally sug
gesied the inquiry whether, with all
'ur ingenious inventions and wonder
full improvements, we should ever be
able TO supply, by artificial means, the
want Of rain. SOM of the results of
this inquiry, as furnished by scienti-
fic friend, may not be without interest
to our readers.
On an average, there falls annually
in rain and snow, in the space of ten
miles square (taking for example, Phi
ladelph'a as the centre an amount of
water sufficient to fill reservoir one
mile square and 80 feet deep, or
enough to ELL a reservoir half mile
square and 1.4S0 feet more than "a
quarter of miIe) in depth. This is
rather more than 370,00O,O00 cubic
yards, or $4,000, 900, 900 Of ga'llohs.
Again there falls Iii rain and snow,
In the State of Penn -ylvania every
year, as much water as would fill re-
rvoir AGO miles long, one mile wide,
and 80 feet deep. This is equivalent
to about 80 cubic mil OF water
81, ,s9l 900, ,000,0 900 of gallons
Again, suppos;ng the same number
of inches of rain, on an average, to TALL
In al parts of the United States as IN
Pennsylvania, the annual aggregate of
rain in nhe entire territory OF our coIn-
try would amount to 2,10O cubic
miles.
1t is calculated that the Faimont
Waterworks are capable Of raising
twelve millions of gallons in twenty
four hous. They do not, however,
usually raise more than seven or eight
millions per day. Assuming the daily
quantity at eight millions, it would, at
this rate, require 9 $50 days, or more
than twenty five years for those works
to raise as much water as, on an aver
aye, falls every year IN the small space
of ten miles square. More than eleven
thousand years would be necessary in
order to raise as much water as falls
annually in the State Of Pennsylvania,
while more than seven hundred thous-
and years would be required in order
to raise a quantity as great as falls
every year IN the territory of the Unit
ed States.
A Gu ic mile of water is a short and
simple phrase, easily W it:en a d quick
ly sp KIN, but the difficulty is for any
human mind to form an adequate idea
of It, Suppose tne man to dip from
one vessel to another a gallon at "a
time, he could not, under the most IA
vorable circumstances, average more
than gallon in two seco .ds, or thiri y
gallons per minute. Now, # he should
work al this rate, night and day, with
out the slightest Intermissi n, it would
require more than seventy thousand
years to dip out the number of gallons
contained in cubic mile.
In order, however, to form any just
idea of the inimltable grandeur on
which Nature conducts her operations,
we must bear in mind that the water
which she designs for the refreshing of
the earth, she raised not like our ar.ifi-
cla waterworks, merely one, two, or
three hundred feet, but hi. h enough to
supply water TO every amin i or vege-
table existing on the face of the earth
from $4,000 to $4,000 feet, for some
Of the mining d'tricts OF Sou h Amerl-
ca, AMI MT less than $1,000 f ct for
the highest lnhabit,d regions of Thu
bet
The foregoing calculations may be
re,,;ed on as correct. We have assum-
ed the annual fall of rain at 44I inch
es, which is a trfflc less than the year
ly average, according to meteoroIogi-
cal tables kept during the last fifteen
years 10000 square miles have been
taken as the area of p, nnsylvania,
and 100000 square miles as The area
of the entire territory of the United
States.