The Arizona sentinel., 1897-08-28

| April. The same reports show the highest and lowest temperatures, averaged for eight years, at the same place, as follows: For November 7SH degrees and 42 degrees, December 731l degrees and 36H degrees. January 65H degrees and g degrees, Feb ruary nH degrees and 355 de rees' March Sl L degrees and 4l degrees and April S8L degrees and 46 degrees. The nights throughout the winter are apt to De cool enough for open wood fires, and for blankets Half the time an overcoat is not nseded during the day, but itis never prudent for q stranger to be without one at hand.
 The atmosphere is singuIarly clear, tonic and dry. I nave never seen 1t clearer anywhere ill the world. 1t seems to have about the same bracing and exhilarating qualities as the air of the Great Sahara in Northern Africa, or of the deserts about Mount Sinai, in Arabia Petraea. It Is much drier than ia the parts of Morocco Algiers or Tunis usually visited. and drier than any part of the Valley of the Nile norti, ofthe First Cataract. It seems to me about the same in quality as the air on the Nile between Assouan and Wady- Halfa, but somewhat cooler.
 ACTUAL HUMIDITY.
 This is extremely slight, everywhere in Arizona, as compared with any eastern climate in the United States. The air is driest on the high mesas, remote from snowclad mountains or forests, and in the desert valleys, where no considerable Irrl- ration has been begun. Wherever irrIga- tiou is carried on on large scale, the percentaga of humidity in the atmosphere must be somewhat increased, although to an eastern visitor it is scarcely perceptible. The same Government observations al ready cited show relative humidity, at Phoenix or Tucson, averaged for weeks, from morning and evening readings. at less than half the usual humidity on dry days in New York. General Greedy, in pub lication from the Weather Bureau, gave the normal weight of aqueous vapor in the Arizona air at frosa l1E to grains per cubic foot.
 Showers, and indeed heavy rains are 1 liable to occur ill every month of the year; but the actual number of rains seems to an eastern visitor strangely small. The average rainfall in Southern Arizona, as shown by the Government observations, Is but g. js inches per year
 ATTITUDES.
 It IS striking advantage offered by Arizona that, with the same general con- Aisions as to temperature and dryness of air, the physician is able to select nearly any altitude be may deaire. Thus, asth- matic sufferers can find almost the sea level at Yuma, or an altitude of only 8 thousand feet at Phoenix, or of only 2,4O0 at Tucson. Others, who find uo objection to greater elevations. can choose between Prescott or Fort Whipple. 5,400; Flag staff, 6,SO0,; the Sulphur Spring Valley, or Fort Grant, 4,20O; Fort Huachuca. 4,S00, or Oracle, about 4,0O0.
 IsI PLACE FIT TO LIVE INH
 This depends on what one expects in a huge, parsely settled Territory of mount aims and deserts The man who looks for either the beauty or the seductive excite ment of Monte Carlo will not ind it. AS little will he 6pd the historic remains or the cosmopolitan attractions Of Egypt; nor could he reasonable expect the amusements and luxuries of our own Eastern cities. The people of Arizona are still chiefly busy in the pioneer work of subduing it to the residence and uses of civilized man. But it has two transcontinental lines of railwa with numerous feeders; it has fast mails, and rival telegraph ines. and is throbbing with the intense life of the splendid West
 The two principal towns in the south ern portion, chiefly sought for their climatic advantages, are Phoenix and Tucson. Each of them has ten thousand inhabitants or more. They have the electric light, tele- phones, trolley cars, plenty of hotels, banks, bookstores, good schools, churches, an occasional theatrical performance, some- times lecture or s circus, often horse race, and, in the spring. thoroughly curious and interesting "festa." For the cest, people must take their amusements with them. Good horses are abundant and cheap. and there are plenty of cow boys-the genuine article--to show what horses can do. The driving for fifteen or twenty miles in almost any direction from Phoenix, is nearly always easy. The roads are apt to be dusty; but there IS one we'll sprinkled drive of six or eight miles; and since the winds are quite regular ip their direction. 1t is rarely difficult to choose 8 route on which the dust will be largely carried away frorl you. The unbroken desert itself is often as easy to drive over as an Eastern highway, and the whole yalley is paradiae for bioyclers, or eques- trians
 CAN oNF, LIVE COMFORTABLY?
 That again depends ou what you expect. 1 You cannot la, e the luxuries of our New York houses out there, unless you build one; or ths variety of cur New York markets, unless you charater refrigerator car. But there gre hotels with almost as much frontage as the Waldorf; and, like everything else in the Territory excepting