The New York herald., 1874-11-16


most prominent of our citizens, should be
completed without any further delay.
nostics OF the Coming Winter.
The eccentric weather through which the
country has been passing for some months
constitutes a memorable meteorologic cycle,
of which we have not seen the end Since the
early part of July nearly every section has
been visited by thermal extremes and exces-
sive droughts, which have fingered into the
present month and bid fair to leave their i'm
press on the approaching winter. That the
great continents undergo cyclical changes OF
climate by no means inappreciable is mat
ter of historic record too familiar to be ignored.
In modern times, as in 1857 and 1853 these
non-periodic vicissitudes have been sensibly
felt In the years just named the rainless
season was SO marked in Central Europe that
the Seine in Paris, shrunk to mere shadow
of its usual self, and portions of the bed OF
the Rhine, never before dried up, were left
uncovered. Strange to say, simultaneously,
however, the level Of Lake Ontario was two
feet higher than its mean level as determined
by fourteen years observations. In the few
years preceding 1910 the rainfall was SO large
in Pennsylvania that an American geologist
showed that, had the same extended to the
lake region, the inland waters, in the absence
of new outlets would have risen twenty-nine
feet above their normal height.
The extraordinary dryness of the summer
and autumn of 1874 on this Continent has had
its compensation apparently in the abnormal
rainfall of an opposite continent in the same
hemisphere. While the Ohio and Mississippi
have been sluggishly coursing their half
emptied channels the Nile has been pouring
its torrential roaring floods over the inundated
plains of Egypt as it has hardly been known
to do from time immemoriaL Early in July
last the great African river began to rise
rapidly (at the very time our American rivers
began to fall) and continued SO to do till it
reached, on the 18th Of September, the almost
unprecedented height of twenty-nine feet at
Alexandria It continued at this point till the
7th of October, when an increase of three feet
would have put all the Delta Of Egypt under
the rushing, yellow tide. Still farther east
the heavy rains in India, the autumnal cyclones
in the Bay Of Bengal and the terrible typhoons
which recently swept over Nagasaki and Hong
Kong evidence conditions of excessive humid
ity on the opposite side of the Northern Hem
isphere, balancing the excessive aridity pre-
vailing in the United States.
Such physical changes appear anomalous
enough, especially when we contrast those
which caused the Bengal famine in 1873 and
the floods in 1874. Are they due to regular
cyclical causes, recurring in supra-annual
periods? So it would seem; and it also
seems likely that these extraordinary phenom-
ena travel slowly around the globe, somewhat
as the ordinary storm does. The attempt has
been made to trace hot and cold years to the
variations Of sun-spot frequency, and eminent
scientists have contended that the sun-spot
periods are followed by corresponding climatic
changes on the earth. But, however this may
be, the abnormal seasons we have experienced
are directly traceable to the variations of at
mospheric pressure on the earth. Thus, ac-
cording to known laws Of the atmosphere, the
abnormal prevalence Of hot southerly winds
on any continent north Of the Equator proves
that there has been an aerial depression Of
long standing in the ocean west Of it; and a
similar excess of cold northerly winds argues
an excess Of pressure. If these long-standing
high and low pressures move from west to
east, in the middle ATTITUDES, as the transient
cyclones and anti-cyclones are known to do,
we have an easy and obvious explanation of
the contrasts Of weather on opposing sides of
the Northern Hemisphere in the same year.
Without dwelling on the theoretical aspects
Of these weather anomalies it is evident the
present year must close with o great deficiency
Of moisture in the soil Of the United States
east Of the Rocky Mountains. The winter
and spring rains Of 1875 may restore the
water Of which the rocks and springs have
been exhausted by the summer and autumn
droughts and thus prepare the ground for agri-
culture. But in the meantime the water
courses must be scantily filed, the wells low
and the subterranean fountains but half re-
plenished. In word, the Continent is now
in the condition Of thoroughly drained
field. The effect of such dryness, however,
will be to check the chilling evaporation Of
the soil, and thus in some measure, TO miti-
gate the rigors of the approaching winter.
The Churches and tho Sermons.
VyL;1o tho A rch1,;chnv, of Woc%,,,;ro<or A.