Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-03-26

The Danger OF Getting Beyond the Moist
Meridian.
Eli Perkins in Cincinnati Enquirer.
An awful trap is being set for credulous
emigrants. Thousands of these emigrants are
know it. They are going out too far on the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Kansas
Pacific, tie Union Pacific, and the Northern
Pacific railroads.
'eWhere is the drought-line?' asks the
reader.
"Draw line from Austin, Tex, to Bis
marck, D. r., on the Northern Pacific, and
all west on that line is the drought country.
Five years out of eight, crops will entirely
fail west of this line. Last year was an ex-
ception to the rule and this is why 80 many
emigrants 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 Tooth
parallel a desert-region?"
because it rains just as much water as
there is water evaporated each year. If it
| rained more water than is evaporated, 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 evap-
crates the water of the ocean and carries it
| inland. Clouds form rainfalls, and back
goes the water on to the earth, then into the
| ocean again. Now, before the air from the
gulf or ocean reaches Bismarck, or the mid
die of Nebraska or Kansas, this wet air
| which started from the ocean becomes 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 gulf2''
| 'Because the air of San Antonio, on the
! Staked Plains in Texas and in Arizona,
comes up through Mexico. 1t is dry before
it starts. 1t does not come from the gulf.
Mexico is hot. A perpetual current of hot,
dry air blows over Mexico, and fans ArizoAo,
New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado with at
mosphere as dry as wind from the Desert of
Sahara. This dry air-current, blowing up
| from Mexico and Arizona, strikes the high
mountains in Colorado. Here, in the centre
of the continent, within seventy-fv miles
of Pixies Peak, are the source of the
Red, Colorado, Rio Grande, Arkansas, and
Missouri rivers. This is the backbone of
North America. The high, cold peaks con-
dense any moisture that there might be 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 continent, making a
perpetual desert. It prevents any damp air
from coming east of the one hundreth paral-
lei. When we reach the Northern Pacific
and Manitoba, another current of wind-a
damp current-blows from the Pacific ocean.
There is no desert there, where the Pacific
wind heads off the wind from Mexico.
CHOW, I say, thousands of innocent emil
| grants have taken up farms during the last
year west of the rain-parallel. OF course they
will be ruined, and you will see them coming
back broken-hearted and discouraged
"Will it always be desert West of the
one hundredth parallel"
eyes, until the Almighty changes the
course of the winds, takes down the noun
tain-peaks, and stops the clouds from rain
ing all their water out in the East before
they get to the desert" Eli PERKINS.