That the presumption of rainfall furnishing the supply for all of our lakes, springs and wells has never been questioned seems almost discreditable to the observing talent of our age. Whatever the character of rainfall, either by protracted storm or sudden and copious showers, it cannot escape our notice that the largest portion of the water runs from the highlands to the lowlands into the gulches and small streams, and thence to the rivers, into the ocean; so that the percentage of water retained by the soil is much smaller than that which runs away. In our Western prairies, the country formerly called the Indian Territory, the soil was covered with an almost waterproof matting of grass roots, on which, when showers fell, the penetration was so slight that in a very few days evaporation left them parched and dried. Since the settling up of our territories, which were once termed deserts, the soil has been broken by the farmer’s plow, thus admitting the rainfall to be longer retained in the surface soil, which fact has led to the development of lands once considered barren to become some of the most fruitful grounds in our domain. Another peculiar feature of climatic change may be mentioned here, whereas until recent years thunder showers and storms were almost unknown in many of our Western States and in the Pacific States also, till now these storms and showers, with their electrical disturbances, are nearly as common as in older States. Another feature of weather which has seemed to develop in recent years is that of milder winters in our Northern States and colder freaks in the Southern; snows and frosts reaching States which rarely ever had such experiences, and the burdens of snows becoming much less in States which always expected a long season of sleighing.