August rose to 100 degrees and upward on twelve different days. On July 13, it rose to 113 degrees, it being the hottest day, according to Dr. Child's record, in nineteen years.
     Occasionally the thermometer falls quite low. In North Nebraska, the thermometer has been, on a few occasions, known to descend to at least 35 degrees below zero. South of the Platte. Dr. Child's lowest record for nineteen years is for December 11. 1869, when the mercury fell to 30 degrees below zero. Almost every winter, the mercury goes below zero for a few days. The extremes of temperature are therefore great, while the mean is high. And yet no acute sufferings or other ill consequences flow from it. The heat of summer is modified, and we shall presently see, by the breezes that fan the land. The severe cold of the extremes of winter is made endurable by the dryness of the atmosphere. The dryness is so great that the cold is not felt here more when the thermometer marks 20 degrees below zero than it is in Pennsylvania when only at zero. It is moisture that intensifies the sensation of chilliness. It is the moisture in the atmosphere of the East that makes the sensation of cold so much severer there than here. For the same reason, the fruit buds survive a cold here which would be fatal to them in the East.

     THE WINDS OF NEBRASKA.--The atmosphere is rarely quiescent in Nebraska. While hurricanes are very rare, storms are more frequent in winter, and gentle zephyrs and winds are almost constant. These greatly modify the heat of summer and the cold of winter. When the thermometer is up among the nineties, even a south or a southwest wind makes the weather endurable. At this high temperature, the atmosphere is almost certain to he in perceptible motion from some direction. The prevailing winds in the winter are from the north and northwest.
      With the coining of spring there is a great change in this respect. The winds veer around, and a strong current sets in from the south, blowing from the Gulf of Mexico, but entering the interior, is deflected by the earth's motion and becomes a southwest wind. This remains the prevailing wind during the whole of summer, and often until late in autumn. It sometimes happens that this wind commences to blow during the coldest days of winter, when the curious phenomenon is observed of snow melting when the thermometer is at a little above, or even below, zero. This of course is caused by the temperature of the coming current of air being much higher than that of the place. This character of north and northwest winds in winter, and south and southwest winds in summer. with some local exceptions, is the dominant character of the atmospheric movements between the Mississippi and the mountains, and the gulf to an unknown distance north.

     THE STORMS OF WINTER--From no cause has Nebraska, in company with Iowa and Kansas, suffered more in popular estimation than from the reputed severity and frequency of its storms. And yet they occur at comparatively long intervals. During one-half the years' none are experienced of any severity and when they do come the laws that govern their occurrence are so well understood by at least the older citizens of the State that little damage is suffered from them. One of the laws of their occurrence is their periodicity. When the first one of the season comes, whether it is in November, December or January, a similar one is almost sure to occur within a few days of a month from the first. Those whose necessities, therefore, or business, calls them out during the winter season need only note the date of the first to know when to guard against the next. It is rare, however, that more than one of these periodical storms is of great severity.

     CLEARNESS AND PURITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE.--A number of circumstances combine to make the atmosphere of Nebraska exceptionally pure and clear. Its mean elevation of 2,312 feet above the sea, its general slope toward the east and south, its distance from the sea, the constant motion of its atmosphere, the general character of its finely silicious soil and perfect natural drainage, and its general freedom from swamps, bogs and sloughs, all combine to give the State the purest possible atmosphere. Its constant breezes sweep away or mingle with the general current of the atmosphere such impurities as may have been generated from any cause. Only during the Indian summer of autumn is there a haze that obscures distant objects. Fogs seldom occur. It is remarkable at how great a distance objects can usually be seen. Often when a bluff is ascended, the larger limbs of a tree can be counted from eight to twelve miles distant. Objects universally appear to be much nearer than they really are, to strangers coming from the East. In fact, judging from the European meteorological reports, the atmosphere of Nebraska is as clear, and much purer, than the far-famed skies of Italy and Greece.
     Owing to this pureness of the atmosphere, clouds, when formed, are exceptionally clearly outlined. They stand out as most conspicuous objects in the sky. Nothing can surpass their evening or morning splendors. The sunsets are remarkable for the brightness and variety of their coloring. I have seen many magnificent sunsets in the mountains, but never anything to compare for extent, coloring, form and grandeur, with those that so often occur on the rolling prairies of Nebraska.

     MOISTURE AND RAINFALL.--Eastern Nebraska has an abundance of moisture. This may appear like an exaggeration to those who were educated to believe that Nebraska was an arid region. And yet there is nothing in the natural history of the State better established than that there is here an abundance of rainfall.
     When the snows of winter disappear, the ground is in good condition to be worked. Sufficient showers come during early spring to excite the crops of cereal grains, grasses and corn to an active growth. Sometimes it is comparatively dry between the spring showers and the June rains. These come sometimes earlier than June, in the last of May, and sometimes not till the last of June, and constitute

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