The Arizona sentinel., 1897-07-10

 April. The same reports show the highest and lowest temperatures, averaged tor eight years, at the same place, as follows: For November 7S1s degrees and 42 degrees, December 73l degrees and 36% degrees, January G5H degrees and B degrees, Feb ruary 7IH degrees and 35H de rees, March Sl 1a degrees and fl degrees and April S611 degrees and 46 degrees. The nights throughout the winter are apt to be cool enough for open wood fires, and for blankets Half the time an overcoat is not needed during the day, but 1t Is never prudent for stranger to be without one at hand.
 The atmosphere is singuIarly clear, tonic and dry. 1 have never seen 1t clearer anyw here in the world. It seems to have about the same bracing and exhilaratlng qualities as the air of the Great Sahara ln Northern Africa, or of the deserts about Mount Sinai, in Arabia Petraea. It IS much drier than Ill the parts of Morocco, Algiers or Tunis usually visited, and drler than any part of the Valley of the Nile north of the First Cataract. It seems to me about the same in quality as the ar on the Nile between Assouan and Wady- Halfa, but somewhat cooler.
 ACTUAL aUMIDITY.
 This is extremely slight, everywhere in Arizona, as compared with any eastern climate in the United States. The air is driest on tho high mesas, remote from snowcIad mountains or forests, and in the desert valleys, where no considerable irri- gation has beeu begun. Wherever lrrIga- tion is carried on on large scale, the percentage 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, f.om morning and evening readings, at less than Laf the usual hr.lnidity on dry days in New York. General Greedy, in a pub lication from the Weather Bureau, gave the nornal weight of aqueous vapor in the Arizona air at from lH2 to 1 grains per cubic foot.
 Showers, and indeed heavy rains are liable to occur in 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 811a inches per year.
 ATTITUDES.
 Itlsa striking advantage offered by Arizona that, with the same general con- ditions as to temperature and dryness of air, the physician is able to select nearly any altitude he may desire. Thus, asth- matic sufferers can find almost the sea level at Yuma, or an altitude of only a thousand feet at Phoenix, or of only 2,4OO at Tucson. Others, who find no objection to greater elevations, can choose between Prescott or Fort Whipple, 5,400; Flsg- staff. 6,S00,; the Sulphur Spring Valley, or Fort Grant, l, 200; Fort Huachuca. 4,S00, or Oracle, about 4,000.
 4sITAPLACE FIT TO LIvE IN?
 This depends on what one expects in huge, parsely settled Territory of mount aims and deserts. Tae man who looks for either the beauty or the seductive excite ment of Monte Carlo will not find it. As little wlil he 6Dd the historic remains or the cosmopolitan attractions of Egypt; nor could he reasonable expect the amusements and luxuries of onr 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 transcontinentai' lines Of railway with numerous feeders; it has fast mails, and rival telegraph lines, and is throbbing with the intense life of the splendid West
 The two principal towns ill 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 6 circus, often a horse race, and, in the spring. thoroughly curious and interesting "iesta." 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 II 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 slnce the winds are quite regular in their direction, it is rarely difficult to choose route or which the dust will be largely carried away from you. The unbroken desert itself is often as easy to drive over as an Eastern highway, and the whole valley is a paradise for bicyclers, or eques- tri4ns.
 CAN ONE LIVE COMFORTABLY?
 That again depends on what'you expect l You cannot have the luxuries of our New York houses out there, unless you build l one; or the variety Of our New York | markets, unless you charater a refrigerator