while not a dry one, fortunately, is below the mean of the variable
district.

It would be a wrong conclusion should any one decide that the summer was
lacking in those qualities of atmosphere which so happily characterizes
other portions of the year. True, there is a diminution of aridity, but
no disappearance, and the effect on the invalid is beneficial and
decided.

The humidity of the atmosphere is not always determined by the
rain-fall. There may be considerable water precipitated during a single
season, and the air of the locality be, before and after the rains, dry
and elastic, as the case at Santa Fé, in New Mexico, and at other points
which might be mentioned. Among these is that of Minnesota. Its
geographical position and physical structure is such as to insure these
elements in large measure, even for the climate of her summers.

If the quantity of rain and snow falling at all seasons in a given
district depended on itself for the supply, then the amount of water
precipitated would, were the winds out of consideration, be determined
by the amount of lake, river, and ocean surface within its own
boundaries. In this event Minnesota would among the States occupy the
very highest place on the scale,--with, perhaps, a single
exception,--since the whole face of the commonwealth is dotted all over
with lakes, sliced with rivers, and skirted in addition by a great
inland sea.

To many who travel over the State it seems a marvel that the atmosphere
should have any elasticity or any tonic properties.