The herald., 1897-06-27

siderable moisture near the ground may
have a stratum of dry air above them
so thick that radiation sufficiently rapid
to make cool nights after the hottest
day is permitted always. There may be
an exception where the ground is so very
dry as to absorb to much heat, and this
is probably why parts Of the San Joa-
.;uin valley are so hot at night. The
cooling goes on fast enough, but there
is too much Of it to do. Though the hy-
grometer shows in many places an
amount Of moisture in the air equal to
that Of many parts Of the east, there are
many facts here showing that in some
way or other the hygrometer does not
tell the exact truth, or that the conclu-
sions from it are wrongly drawn. AL
most on the coast of Southern California
you may dry meat either in the sun or
shade at a temperature at which 1t
would sour in almost any state east Of
the Rocky mountains. I have time and
again dried the sirloin strips Of big
buck two inches through without salt
or smoke or other preservative, and
never have failed to cure meat in that
way twelve miles from the coast. And
I have seen it done at the coast, though
1 never tried it there. Every house,
keeper knows that the way to keep meat
here if you have no ice is to expose it
to the breeze, whereas that is the way to
spoil meat back east. The absence Of
sticking doors, damp walls, damp bed
ding and many other features common
in the east tells the tale here as well
as any instrument. But If these are not
enough, wait til the Arizona rains over
I,v1 ut to-
mers, filling the upper air with moisture
and cutting off radiation with clouds.
And let these clouds overcast the sky,
as I have seen four or five times in
twenty-one years, about sundown and
stay over it all night. You will then see
how our ordinary weather differs from
that Of the east and will quickly see
that the difference is in the moisture !;
hygrometers to the contrary notwith-
standing.
While these and many other things
show the lower air drier than that of the
Atlantic coast, there are many things
that indicate far drier layer of air high
overhead. 1t is undoubtedly caused by
the air flowing over from the immen sc
dry basins east of the mountains, in
Guiding Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New
Mexico and Sonora, as we'll as the vast
basins of the Colorado and Mojave, that
we call deserts. This over-current is
plainly shown at nine or ten thousand
feet, and comes from the east. It has
been shown by paper balloons and kites
from some of the highest points; and the
smoke of brush fires in the fall, which on
the high mountains will often go east
for a while and then bend and come
west again are good proofs Of it. On the
tops Of the highest mountains one can
pass from the current of the sea breeze
going east into the other current coming
west. Naturally the air that rises over
all that country from the heat of the
sun would flow this way to find an out
let when 1t rose high enough. 1t cannot
flow to the east, for the great continent
al divide Is too high; and it is not likely
to flow over into Sonora, because that is
naturally hotter and has its own risinx
current to take care Of which the Gulf
of California fails to cool as the cold cur
rent of the Pacific does with the over
flowing breeze of California.
The greater GOODNESS in the bottom of
deep valleys at night Is from the same
cause that often makes frost there In
winter nights when on the slopes and
benches little above 1t 10 warmer