St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-05-02
Let Emigrants Westward Look Out.

The Cincinnati Enquirer says: An
awful trap is being set for credulous
emigrants. Thousands of these emf
grants are settling west of the rain belt,
and they don't know it. They are go
ing out too far on the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe, the KANSAS Pacific, the
Union Pacific, and the Northern Pacific
railroads.
"Where is the drought line ?" asks
the reader.
'sDraw a line from Austin, Texas, to
Bismark, Mimi, on the Northern Pa
cific, and all west of that line is the
drought country. Five years out of
eight crops will entirely fail west of this
line. Last year was an exception to
the rule, and this is why so many emf
grants are venturing too far west this
year. The land sharks are deceiving
them, and are pushing vast army of
emigrants into famine region"
''What makes this region west of the
hundredth parallel desert region"
Because 1t rains just as much water
us there is water evapOrated each year.
If it rained more water than is evapOr-
ated it would run down into the ocean,
and the land would soon be covered
with water. Rains run to the ocean in
rivers, and the air evapOrates the water
of the ocean and carries it inland.
Clouds form rainfalls, and back goes the
water on the earth, then into the ocean
again. Now, before the air from the
gulf or ocean reaches Bismark, or the
middle of Nebraska or Kansas, this wet
air which started from the ocean, be-
comes dry. There is no water in it :;
the water has all fallen out of it in rain,
and it has run back to the sea-"
But why is San Antonio subject to
drought when it is so close to the gulf"
because the air of San Antonio, on
the staked plains in Texas and in Arr
IONA, comes up through Mexico. 1t is
dry before it starts. 1t does not come
from the gulf. Mexico is hot. A per
petual current of hot, dry air blows
over Mexico and fans Arizona, New
Mexico, Utah, and Colorado with at
mOsphere as dry as wind from the Dcs-
ert of Sahara. This dry air current,
blowing up from Mexico and Arizona
strikes the high mountains in Colorado.
Here is the centre of the continent,
within seventy miles of Pixies Peak,
al lllt SOul CG bl tHt httl, NOIOIdtlO, Mo
Grande, Arkansas, and Missouri rivers.
This is the back bone of North America.
The high, cold peaks condense any
moisture that there may he in the air
coming up from the south, and makes
it into snow. Then this cold, dry air
passes on up the centre of the CONT
nent, making a perpetual desert. 1t
prevents any damp air from coming
east of the one hundredth parallel
When we reach the Northern Pacific
and Manitoba another current OF wind,
Il damp current, blows from the Pacific
Ocean. There is no desert there, where
the Pacific wind heads Off the wind
from Mexico"
Now, | say, thousands of innocent
emigIants have taken up farms during
the last year west of the rain parallel.
OF course, they will I've ruined, and you
will see them coming back broken
hearted and discouraged
"Wlll it always be desert west of
the one hundredth parallel p
Eyes, until the Almighty changes the
course of the winds, takes down the
mountain peaks, and stops the clouds
from raining all their water out in the
east before they get to the desert"