Volume 35 (1877) (426 pages)

374 MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS. [December 15, 1877. Trees and Rainfall. No 4. (Written for the Press by Samurn PURNELL. . Conditions in California. The same monsoon that hlows across the hot sands of Arizona, sweeps also over the Colorado and Mohave deserts, hut for the same reasons that it could deposit no rain in Arizona it can deposit none in southern California. Moisture caunot he condeused from a wind that is cooler than the earth. The only summer rains that fall upon western Arizona or southern California are those locally denominated ‘‘cloud hursts,” in which the rain, instead of falling gently, comes from the cloud as one sheet of water, and gives rise to mountain torrents that carry everything before them and add additional desolation to the country. ‘Cloud bursts” have their origin in electrical discharges, as the electrical discharge takes place instantly, so does the water fall from the clouds where it bad heen held in repulsion while somewhat cooled by the resence of high mountains. Accordingly we ind “‘cloud bursts” are discharged upon mountaius that overlook hot and sandy valleys. The reflected heat of the latter drives the clouds to the extreme point of the mountain, and, amid great, electrical disturhance, sheets of water descend so suddenly and with such force that portions of the clouds are carried along. This water is from the South Atlantic, and the winds that brought it, heiug now almost completely deprived of moisture, are deflected by the Mohave mountains, and are not felt upon the coast or in the valleys of California and Oregon. The Pacific coast, receiving no suminer rains from the great Atlautic current that waters all the couutry to the east, has only the winds of the Pacific ocean from which to hope for summer rains, That no summer rains fall in California, hut that they fall in abundance in Oregon and farther north, is well known; it is-not so well known why. The Wind That blows upou the Pacific coast from May to October is called a ‘‘trade wind.” A northern equatorial current of water strikes the coast of Asia near the Island of Formosa, is deflected north and northeast, forming the Japan current, or the Black stream. This gives off the Kamtchatka current running up toward Behring’s strait; but the inain body crosses over toward Alaska, then runs south as the Pacifie coast eurrent, and off the coast of Mexico, into the equatorial circulation. Accompanying this vast body of moving water is a strong wind, the north Pacihe trade wind, which in Oregon hlows from the north and in California from the north west. Blowing over a sea cooled hy au Arctic current, saturated with moisture at as lowa temperature as 53° F., its relative humidity is very low, containing but about four grains ot water to the ‘euhie foot of air, or only ahout one-third that possessed hy the warm monsoon when it strikes the valley of the lower Mississippi. At this low temperature it strikes the coast of California, which is generally bare of trees, in many places sandy and heated wp from 70° to 90°, The consequence is that as soon as the moist, cool wind strikes the heated land its temperature is elevated, its relative humidity is lowered, it relatively contains but half as much moisture, it can now ahsorh more water, and instead of being in a conditon to impart moisture it will dry everything that it passes over, The summer trade wind can only he caused to deposit a portion of its moisture upon California by cooling it helow its dew point, when it would probably deposit half its vapor hefore it reached the Sierras, There is but one way to accomplish this, and that is hy the planting and maintenance of forests upon the coast range of mountains, and covering all the valleys not absolutely needed for the sustenance of the people, with living grass and trees. As long as the present nakedness of the valleys and mountains of the coast coutiunes there can be no hope for summer rains, and the interior of the State must, for the greater part of the year remain a harren and hurniug region. In Oregon Summer rains frequently and regularly fall and are precipitated from the same trade wind that strikes the California coast, but Oregon offers conditions wherehy the wind is cooled and its water falls. Western Oregon is densely wooded and to that fact is due the annual fall of 60 inches of rain or three times as much as the average of California, Western Oregon, in cousequence of this rainfall, equally distributed throughout the year, has a far superior climate to, and is far more productive than any portion of California, and her great Willamette valley ig a paradise when compared with hot and arid wastes of the interior of this State. Jn Eastern Oregon the lofty Cascade mountains squeeze from the trade winds the balance of its precipitable moisture, and east of them Oregon has few or no forests, only a few inches of rain anuually, and is in the generally harren condition of Nevada. North of Oregon the forests are still denser, the earth is still cooler and still more rain is thrown down. The rainfall, as to amount aud time, upon the western coast of Mexico is substantially like that of sonthern California, a Sun Spots and Rain. As all terrestial motion depends upon aud is transmitted from the sun, it follows that more or less activity of the sun will cause more or less activity in the motive powers at work upon the earth. After many years of ohservation in many parts of the globe, it has heen determined that the activity and dynamic quality of the sun Varies from year to year and in a cycle of about 11 years, and that this varied activity is coincident with an increase and diminution of sun spots. When the surface of the sun is thickly covered with spots, its potency is enormously magnified, and the solar forces which govern all terrestial phenomena are correspond-" ingly exalted. At such times great storms and cyclones sweep over the earth, free electricity is ahundant, and the quantity of water evaporated from tropical seas by the electro-dynamic action of the snn is so large that the whole earth is well watered by copious rains. On the other hand, during the period of minimum sun spots, the dynamism of the solar envelope is greatly lessened and its influence npon the earth is correspondingly decreased. At sucb periods, the atmosphere is generally calm, ships sail through tranquil seas, hot weather prevails, and there is too little electricity in circulation to mechauically produce the great tropical evaporation necessary to water the earth; drowths then . prevail. This has been found to be invariahly the case in India—a country most admirably fitted for meteorological exploratiou—where it has heen definitely ascertained that years of drowth and famine correspond with those of minimum sun spots, and vive versa. Consequently, it has been possible to predict, approximately, the annual rainfall of India and its resulting plenteousness or famine. The same has been found to be true of the Cape of Good Hope, and of other places where systematic ohservations haye heen made, and it will be found true of all parts of the earth when science has encompassed it, The whole scope of the power and influence of sun spots, or of that solar condition of which they are indicative—the learning of which, in fact, constitutes the new meteorology, and emhraces all of the science that has any prophetic value or stahle foundation—is not yet eutirely understood, as the determination of their effect is quite recent, and profound investigations are still in progress ; but enough is already known to affirm in the strongest manner that the number and volume of sun spots is an indication and prophecy of mild or intense solar disturhance and poteucy, to every variation of which the earth immediately responds, and as the volwme of the sun spots increases toward the middle of the cycle so do the terrestrial forces increase and ultimate iu tempests, electric storms, and especially in that great equatorial evaporation that hrings copions rains upou the earth at large. While the total amount of moisture falling upon the earth during a season is gauged quite accurately hy the sun spots, yet the rainfall of any particular country during any particular year is modified hy continental and cosmical influences at present but imperfectly understood, as sometimes under a minimum of sun spots a country receives more rainfall than upon the average, and vice versa, the rain not being distributed strictly as the aspect of the sun would appear to indicate; still the rule is surely ascertained, and the general quantity of rainfall can be now confidently predicted far in advance of its coming, and to a certaiu extent the probable local rainfall of any particular country. By reference to a chart it will be seen that the dearth of the winter rainfall of California since 1849 appears to have been dominated by the 1l-year periods, and hy the solar potency immediately preceding and succeeding the cycle years, Although locally it has received heavy rainfalls in certain years that do not appear to! correspond with the solar disturbance, the reasons for which ean at present be only surmised, yet it appears certain that the amount of rainfall has generally heen relative to the number and magnitude of the sun spots. The year 1876 was the close of a cycle, and was one of a minimnm of sun spots. Dronths occurred in India, Southern Africa, Australia, the Pacilic coast of America, and especially in California. Thesolar aspect during the present fall, that of 1877, is much like that of 1876, the sun now heiug hut slightly more spotted than then, and averaging hut ahout one-tenth the maximum sun spot area. While influences and modifiers, of which we are at present in almost complete ignorance, may materially vary up or down the totality of the rainfall upon this coast during this winter, yet in consideration of the paucity of sun spots and the absence of electro-dynamism the author, in accordance with the latest deductions of science, ventures to predict that the rainfall this winter will not vary much in quantity from that of the winter of 1876, when the rainfall at San Francisco was less than 10 inches, and that, consequently, another dry season pon the Pacilic coast may be confidently anticipated. The Winter Rains Of the Pacific coast need but little attention in this connection. They usually fall in ample volume, and equal in amount those of most fertile countries, The rain winds of winter come from the southwest; a warm ocean wind, saturated with moisture at a high temperature, and carrying three times more water than the summer winds. Being winter in the northern hemisphere the land is much cooler than in summer, much cvoler thau the southwest wind, and as that wind sweeps over the mountains it is cooled helow its dew point and part of its moisture falls as rain. This is the case annually, and all parts of the State receive the haptism of water, whether naked or wooded, The amount of forest, however, has a great influence upon the amount of local rainfall; the Colorado desert and western Arizona receiving hut about three inches; the vicinity of San Diego, 10 inches; San Francisco, 21 inches; Humboldt hay, 34 inches; while the forested Sierras receive the copious drenching of from fonr to six feet of water, It is not the want of winter rains, but the absolute dearth of summer rains that renders so large a part of the Pacific coast barren and inhospitahle, and which, if not remedied by the wisdom and labor of man, will for ‘many centuries in advance maintain a hot and arid waste over a portion of the earth that is capahle of heing converted hy summer showers into a paradisean region of plenty and delight. The hnman History of California Reaches back hit three centuries, and its testiA HANDY FAMILY TOOL CHEST, mony upon the forestsis meager. From the narrative hy Cahrillo of his voyage along the lower coast, it is ascertained that the coast and the islands of the coast of Santa Barhara were then densely peopled with native Indians, covered with trees and verdure, and ahounding in perennial streams; that summer rains refreshed the earth, and that all the country visited for hundreds of miles was a sceue of almost tropical life and luxuriance. How different now! Since the fatal presence of the white man, with his false ideas of prosperity, his delusive notions of the necessities of civilization, and his supreme selfishness, the forests have been felled, the streams have disappeared, the springs are dry, the summer rains no longer fall to refresh the land, the native people have heeome entirely extinct, and most of the country is uncultivatable, a parched and wretched region where the few dwellers maintain a hopeless struggle with nature in lahoring for a precarious existence by cultivating such fruits and grains as can he produced by the scauty winter rains and from an insignificant amount of irrigation. To such a state has the felling of the forests reduced the coast of southeru California. Not only has the coast heen ruined, hut also the country away hack among the mountains and valleys of the interior. For instance, at Tejon pass, and other places where 50 years ago were never failing streams and water for itrigation, and which were noted for grazing, a change has taken place. The bunch grass which once covered the hills, no louger grows there at all, and even the half-starved sheep can scarcely find water enough to drink. The Santa Clara river of Ventura couuty and Posa creek, and the springs which feed thei, have mostly dried up and generally the streams and lakes of the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre, which, not so very long ago, were overflowing with water, are now either totally dry or are rapidly becoming so. The time was when Owen’s lake, Mono lake, Soda lake, the dead lakes of Panamint and Death valleys, and the large lake of the Coahula valley, were fed fnll hy the ample rains. They have only hecome stagnant and dry within the past few hundred years. The fact should not he concealed that southern and central California are Heogming dryer, that less rain is falling, and that the desert is approaching still nearer to the sea, for when it is completely realized, means will be fonnd to remedy the evil. Small groves of trees are disappearing, the water in the wells nust he sought deeper, the artesian wells flow less, the winters have less rain, but little snow falls upon the mountains or long remains, great river heds are seen through which small brooks do not now run, and the climate in summer upon the deserts possesses an average temperature of 100° to 114°, equal to that of the great Sahara, and much hotter than that of India, Persia and the Red Sea. The evaporation of southern and central California in summer equals one-quarter of an inch in 24hours, The annual evaporation would amount to 95 inches, or equal to that of the Dead Sea. Were the entire flow of the Colorado river turned into the desert, it would all he evaporated from a lake of 556 square miles of surface. At a few hundred feef from au interior river, its influence iu raising the average humidity is not perceptible, so quickly is the vapor diffused into the surrounding air. Amateur Carpentry. There are very few men, either young or old, who cannot do a very useful and very satisfactory little joh of home carpentry if they have a few tools fitted for it. There are a hundred little things a month which may be either made or repaired, and thus made to minister to convenience and comfort. They are often too small to call in the practical mechanic, and unless the amateur can encompass the need there is often a loss of both money and enjoyment, More than this there isan ever present advantage to the young man who early learns the use of a few simple tools, and there is a never ending gratification in the well-doing of a joh to one who has once tasted the satisfaction of the mechanic’s achievements. The economy of home carpentery; the instruction of the young in the use of tools, and the gratification of all who have tastes for mechanism, are all made more attainable hy the very compact and yet comprehensive sets of small tools which are contrived by our tool makers. We bad one of these sets of an early pattern 20 years ago, and, though since that time, we have goue through an apprenticeship at the hench and the lathe, we still find a set of the modern improved amateur tools of constant service to usin our little home mechanics. These remarks, drawn from our own experience, are called out by the engraving on this page representing a little ‘‘ Family Tool Chest,” which we have used to good advantage. It is one of many styles of low-priced tool chests sold by Dunham, Carrigan & Co., of Front street, 8S. F. One of them would bea far better Christmas present for a hoy or young man than all the useless things which are brought forward at holiday time. Nor are they exclusively for young men, We have a good lady at our house who can use the contents of the little chest as handily as she does her sewing machine when a little woodwork in the house or in the garden, needs immediate attention. We have no doubt that many of our readers will find styles of these useful chests to please them in the interesting circular issued by the firm we have named above. Minine Surr.—The Keystone mining company has entered suit in the First Judicial District Court of Nevada, praying that the tax title under which the Lady Washington mining company lays claim to the Keystone ground, he declared invahd. The complaint sets forth that tbe plaintiff is incorporated under the laws of the State of California; thatthe defendant is also incorporated uuder the same laws; that since March 2d, 1874, plu has heen the owner of and in peaceable possession of the mining ground (which is 1,200 feet in length), known as the Keystone company’s claim ; that suhsequent to the acquisition of said ground by said plaintiff, the defendants claim to have acquired a right and title to the premises of plaintiff hy purchase at a tax sale hy the Town Marshal of Gold Hill; and that defendants claim solely under a deed executed hy sgid Town Masshal of Gold Hill. Wherefore plaintiff prays that judgment he entered in favor of plaintiff, declaring and estahlishing its title and estate to the premises above descrihed to he valid and ahsolute, and that the title claimed hy the defendants be declared invalid. Ory Rams ks Brice Marsrtat.—We read in the Railroad Gazette that a new use for old rails is suggested hy two Austrian engineers, who have puhlished a book containing designs of hridges and other framework constructed almost wholly from old rails, the counections heing sometimes made hy means of other rolled irou shapes and sometimes hy bolts and rivits. At present prices, it is said that the structures of old rails are 27 to 30 per cent. cheaper than equivalent structures of ordinary forms. Holes in rails used for such purposes must he drilled and not punched, and this increases the expense somewhat, hut it is claimed that the rails are worth much more for such purposes than for re-rolling, and that they are very good shapes for use in structures, wheu properly used. It does not appear from what we see said of the book whether the authors have actually made any bridges of old rails. Tue attempt to introduce dummy engines of the kind used in Philadelphia upon the Cincinnati street railroads has been abandoned,

374 MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS. [December 15, 1877. Trees and Rainfall. No 4. (Written for the Press by Samurn PURNELL. . Conditions in California. The same monsoon that hlows across the hot sands of Arizona, sweeps also over the Colorado and Mohave deserts, hut for the same reasons that it could deposit no rain in Arizona it can deposit none in southern California. Moisture caunot he condeused from a wind that is cooler than the earth. The only summer rains that fall upon western Arizona or southern California are those locally denominated ‘‘cloud hursts,” in which the rain, instead of falling gently, comes from the cloud as one sheet of water, and gives rise to mountain torrents that carry everything before them and add additional desolation to the country. ‘Cloud bursts” have their origin in electrical discharges, as the electrical discharge takes place instantly, so does the water fall from the clouds where it bad heen held in repulsion while somewhat cooled by the resence of high mountains. Accordingly we ind “‘cloud bursts” are discharged upon mountaius that overlook hot and sandy valleys. The reflected heat of the latter drives the clouds to the extreme point of the mountain, and, amid great, electrical disturhance, sheets of water descend so suddenly and with such force that portions of the clouds are carried along. This water is from the South Atlantic, and the winds that brought it, heiug now almost completely deprived of moisture, are deflected by the Mohave mountains, and are not felt upon the coast or in the valleys of California and Oregon. The Pacific coast, receiving no suminer rains from the great Atlautic current that waters all the couutry to the east, has only the winds of the Pacific ocean from which to hope for summer rains, That no summer rains fall in California, hut that they fall in abundance in Oregon and farther north, is well known; it is-not so well known why. The Wind That blows upou the Pacific coast from May to October is called a ‘‘trade wind.” A northern equatorial current of water strikes the coast of Asia near the Island of Formosa, is deflected north and northeast, forming the Japan current, or the Black stream. This gives off the Kamtchatka current running up toward Behring’s strait; but the inain body crosses over toward Alaska, then runs south as the Pacifie coast eurrent, and off the coast of Mexico, into the equatorial circulation. Accompanying this vast body of moving water is a strong wind, the north Pacihe trade wind, which in Oregon hlows from the north and in California from the north west. Blowing over a sea cooled hy au Arctic current, saturated with moisture at as lowa temperature as 53° F., its relative humidity is very low, containing but about four grains ot water to the ‘euhie foot of air, or only ahout one-third that possessed hy the warm monsoon when it strikes the valley of the lower Mississippi. At this low temperature it strikes the coast of California, which is generally bare of trees, in many places sandy and heated wp from 70° to 90°, The consequence is that as soon as the moist, cool wind strikes the heated land its temperature is elevated, its relative humidity is lowered, it relatively contains but half as much moisture, it can now ahsorh more water, and instead of being in a conditon to impart moisture it will dry everything that it passes over, The summer trade wind can only he caused to deposit a portion of its moisture upon California by cooling it helow its dew point, when it would probably deposit half its vapor hefore it reached the Sierras, There is but one way to accomplish this, and that is hy the planting and maintenance of forests upon the coast range of mountains, and covering all the valleys not absolutely needed for the sustenance of the people, with living grass and trees. As long as the present nakedness of the valleys and mountains of the coast coutiunes there can be no hope for summer rains, and the interior of the State must, for the greater part of the year remain a harren and hurniug region. In Oregon Summer rains frequently and regularly fall and are precipitated from the same trade wind that strikes the California coast, but Oregon offers conditions wherehy the wind is cooled and its water falls. Western Oregon is densely wooded and to that fact is due the annual fall of 60 inches of rain or three times as much as the average of California, Western Oregon, in cousequence of this rainfall, equally distributed throughout the year, has a far superior climate to, and is far more productive than any portion of California, and her great Willamette valley ig a paradise when compared with hot and arid wastes of the interior of this State. Jn Eastern Oregon the lofty Cascade mountains squeeze from the trade winds the balance of its precipitable moisture, and east of them Oregon has few or no forests, only a few inches of rain anuually, and is in the generally harren condition of Nevada. North of Oregon the forests are still denser, the earth is still cooler and still more rain is thrown down. The rainfall, as to amount aud time, upon the western coast of Mexico is substantially like that of sonthern California, a Sun Spots and Rain. As all terrestial motion depends upon aud is transmitted from the sun, it follows that more or less activity of the sun will cause more or less activity in the motive powers at work upon the earth. After many years of ohservation in many parts of the globe, it has heen determined that the activity and dynamic quality of the sun Varies from year to year and in a cycle of about 11 years, and that this varied activity is coincident with an increase and diminution of sun spots. When the surface of the sun is thickly covered with spots, its potency is enormously magnified, and the solar forces which govern all terrestial phenomena are correspond-" ingly exalted. At such times great storms and cyclones sweep over the earth, free electricity is ahundant, and the quantity of water evaporated from tropical seas by the electro-dynamic action of the snn is so large that the whole earth is well watered by copious rains. On the other hand, during the period of minimum sun spots, the dynamism of the solar envelope is greatly lessened and its influence npon the earth is correspondingly decreased. At sucb periods, the atmosphere is generally calm, ships sail through tranquil seas, hot weather prevails, and there is too little electricity in circulation to mechauically produce the great tropical evaporation necessary to water the earth; drowths then . prevail. This has been found to be invariahly the case in India—a country most admirably fitted for meteorological exploratiou—where it has heen definitely ascertained that years of drowth and famine correspond with those of minimum sun spots, and vive versa. Consequently, it has been possible to predict, approximately, the annual rainfall of India and its resulting plenteousness or famine. The same has been found to be true of the Cape of Good Hope, and of other places where systematic ohservations haye heen made, and it will be found true of all parts of the earth when science has encompassed it, The whole scope of the power and influence of sun spots, or of that solar condition of which they are indicative—the learning of which, in fact, constitutes the new meteorology, and emhraces all of the science that has any prophetic value or stahle foundation—is not yet eutirely understood, as the determination of their effect is quite recent, and profound investigations are still in progress ; but enough is already known to affirm in the strongest manner that the number and volume of sun spots is an indication and prophecy of mild or intense solar disturhance and poteucy, to every variation of which the earth immediately responds, and as the volwme of the sun spots increases toward the middle of the cycle so do the terrestrial forces increase and ultimate iu tempests, electric storms, and especially in that great equatorial evaporation that hrings copions rains upou the earth at large. While the total amount of moisture falling upon the earth during a season is gauged quite accurately hy the sun spots, yet the rainfall of any particular country during any particular year is modified hy continental and cosmical influences at present but imperfectly understood, as sometimes under a minimum of sun spots a country receives more rainfall than upon the average, and vice versa, the rain not being distributed strictly as the aspect of the sun would appear to indicate; still the rule is surely ascertained, and the general quantity of rainfall can be now confidently predicted far in advance of its coming, and to a certaiu extent the probable local rainfall of any particular country. By reference to a chart it will be seen that the dearth of the winter rainfall of California since 1849 appears to have been dominated by the 1l-year periods, and hy the solar potency immediately preceding and succeeding the cycle years, Although locally it has received heavy rainfalls in certain years that do not appear to! correspond with the solar disturbance, the reasons for which ean at present be only surmised, yet it appears certain that the amount of rainfall has generally heen relative to the number and magnitude of the sun spots. The year 1876 was the close of a cycle, and was one of a minimnm of sun spots. Dronths occurred in India, Southern Africa, Australia, the Pacilic coast of America, and especially in California. Thesolar aspect during the present fall, that of 1877, is much like that of 1876, the sun now heiug hut slightly more spotted than then,

and averaging hut ahout one-tenth the maximum sun spot area. While influences and modifiers, of which we are at present in almost complete ignorance, may materially vary up or down the totality of the rainfall upon this coast during this winter, yet in consideration of the paucity of sun spots and the absence of electro-dynamism the author, in accordance with the latest deductions of science, ventures to predict that the rainfall this winter will not vary much in quantity from that of the winter of 1876, when the rainfall at San Francisco was less than 10 inches, and that, consequently, another dry season pon the Pacilic coast may be confidently anticipated. The Winter Rains Of the Pacific coast need but little attention in this connection. They usually fall in ample volume, and equal in amount those of most fertile countries, The rain winds of winter come from the southwest; a warm ocean wind, saturated with moisture at a high temperature, and carrying three times more water than the summer winds. Being winter in the northern hemisphere the land is much cooler than in summer, much cvoler thau the southwest wind, and as that wind sweeps over the mountains it is cooled helow its dew point and part of its moisture falls as rain. This is the case annually, and all parts of the State receive the haptism of water, whether naked or wooded, The amount of forest, however, has a great influence upon the amount of local rainfall; the Colorado desert and western Arizona receiving hut about three inches; the vicinity of San Diego, 10 inches; San Francisco, 21 inches; Humboldt hay, 34 inches; while the forested Sierras receive the copious drenching of from fonr to six feet of water, It is not the want of winter rains, but the absolute dearth of summer rains that renders so large a part of the Pacific coast barren and inhospitahle, and which, if not remedied by the wisdom and labor of man, will for ‘many centuries in advance maintain a hot and arid waste over a portion of the earth that is capahle of heing converted hy summer showers into a paradisean region of plenty and delight. The hnman History of California Reaches back hit three centuries, and its testiA HANDY FAMILY TOOL CHEST, mony upon the forestsis meager. From the narrative hy Cahrillo of his voyage along the lower coast, it is ascertained that the coast and the islands of the coast of Santa Barhara were then densely peopled with native Indians, covered with trees and verdure, and ahounding in perennial streams; that summer rains refreshed the earth, and that all the country visited for hundreds of miles was a sceue of almost tropical life and luxuriance. How different now! Since the fatal presence of the white man, with his false ideas of prosperity, his delusive notions of the necessities of civilization, and his supreme selfishness, the forests have been felled, the streams have disappeared, the springs are dry, the summer rains no longer fall to refresh the land, the native people have heeome entirely extinct, and most of the country is uncultivatable, a parched and wretched region where the few dwellers maintain a hopeless struggle with nature in lahoring for a precarious existence by cultivating such fruits and grains as can he produced by the scauty winter rains and from an insignificant amount of irrigation. To such a state has the felling of the forests reduced the coast of southeru California. Not only has the coast heen ruined, hut also the country away hack among the mountains and valleys of the interior. For instance, at Tejon pass, and other places where 50 years ago were never failing streams and water for itrigation, and which were noted for grazing, a change has taken place. The bunch grass which once covered the hills, no louger grows there at all, and even the half-starved sheep can scarcely find water enough to drink. The Santa Clara river of Ventura couuty and Posa creek, and the springs which feed thei, have mostly dried up and generally the streams and lakes of the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre, which, not so very long ago, were overflowing with water, are now either totally dry or are rapidly becoming so. The time was when Owen’s lake, Mono lake, Soda lake, the dead lakes of Panamint and Death valleys, and the large lake of the Coahula valley, were fed fnll hy the ample rains. They have only hecome stagnant and dry within the past few hundred years. The fact should not he concealed that southern and central California are Heogming dryer, that less rain is falling, and that the desert is approaching still nearer to the sea, for when it is completely realized, means will be fonnd to remedy the evil. Small groves of trees are disappearing, the water in the wells nust he sought deeper, the artesian wells flow less, the winters have less rain, but little snow falls upon the mountains or long remains, great river heds are seen through which small brooks do not now run, and the climate in summer upon the deserts possesses an average temperature of 100° to 114°, equal to that of the great Sahara, and much hotter than that of India, Persia and the Red Sea. The evaporation of southern and central California in summer equals one-quarter of an inch in 24hours, The annual evaporation would amount to 95 inches, or equal to that of the Dead Sea. Were the entire flow of the Colorado river turned into the desert, it would all he evaporated from a lake of 556 square miles of surface. At a few hundred feef from au interior river, its influence iu raising the average humidity is not perceptible, so quickly is the vapor diffused into the surrounding air. Amateur Carpentry. There are very few men, either young or old, who cannot do a very useful and very satisfactory little joh of home carpentry if they have a few tools fitted for it. There are a hundred little things a month which may be either made or repaired, and thus made to minister to convenience and comfort. They are often too small to call in the practical mechanic, and unless the amateur can encompass the need there is often a loss of both money and enjoyment, More than this there isan ever present advantage to the young man who early learns the use of a few simple tools, and there is a never ending gratification in the well-doing of a joh to one who has once tasted the satisfaction of the mechanic’s achievements. The economy of home carpentery; the instruction of the young in the use of tools, and the gratification of all who have tastes for mechanism, are all made more attainable hy the very compact and yet comprehensive sets of small tools which are contrived by our tool makers. We bad one of these sets of an early pattern 20 years ago, and, though since that time, we have goue through an apprenticeship at the hench and the lathe, we still find a set of the modern improved amateur tools of constant service to usin our little home mechanics. These remarks, drawn from our own experience, are called out by the engraving on this page representing a little ‘‘ Family Tool Chest,” which we have used to good advantage. It is one of many styles of low-priced tool chests sold by Dunham, Carrigan & Co., of Front street, 8S. F. One of them would bea far better Christmas present for a hoy or young man than all the useless things which are brought forward at holiday time. Nor are they exclusively for young men, We have a good lady at our house who can use the contents of the little chest as handily as she does her sewing machine when a little woodwork in the house or in the garden, needs immediate attention. We have no doubt that many of our readers will find styles of these useful chests to please them in the interesting circular issued by the firm we have named above. Minine Surr.—The Keystone mining company has entered suit in the First Judicial District Court of Nevada, praying that the tax title under which the Lady Washington mining company lays claim to the Keystone ground, he declared invahd. The complaint sets forth that tbe plaintiff is incorporated under the laws of the State of California; thatthe defendant is also incorporated uuder the same laws; that since March 2d, 1874, plu has heen the owner of and in peaceable possession of the mining ground (which is 1,200 feet in length), known as the Keystone company’s claim ; that suhsequent to the acquisition of said ground by said plaintiff, the defendants claim to have acquired a right and title to the premises of plaintiff hy purchase at a tax sale hy the Town Marshal of Gold Hill; and that defendants claim solely under a deed executed hy sgid Town Masshal of Gold Hill. Wherefore plaintiff prays that judgment he entered in favor of plaintiff, declaring and estahlishing its title and estate to the premises above descrihed to he valid and ahsolute, and that the title claimed hy the defendants be declared invalid. Ory Rams ks Brice Marsrtat.—We read in the Railroad Gazette that a new use for old rails is suggested hy two Austrian engineers, who have puhlished a book containing designs of hridges and other framework constructed almost wholly from old rails, the counections heing sometimes made hy means of other rolled irou shapes and sometimes hy bolts and rivits. At present prices, it is said that the structures of old rails are 27 to 30 per cent. cheaper than equivalent structures of ordinary forms. Holes in rails used for such purposes must he drilled and not punched, and this increases the expense somewhat, hut it is claimed that the rails are worth much more for such purposes than for re-rolling, and that they are very good shapes for use in structures, wheu properly used. It does not appear from what we see said of the book whether the authors have actually made any bridges of old rails. Tue attempt to introduce dummy engines of the kind used in Philadelphia upon the Cincinnati street railroads has been abandoned,