prevailing a portion of the summer, do not bring hither much of
moisture, though at their outset they are heavily ladened with it, as it
is borne across the Gulf, in a southwesterly direction, to the open
valley of the Mississippi, where, coming in contact with the edge of the
great westerly winds, and broken probably somewhat by the elevated
district of Mexico and by the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, which
extend to the northern boundaries of Texas, this humid wind drives,
unresisted by any vertical obstruction, up the valley of the "Great
River," shedding on either hand its waters profusely; but their force
and character, in this long march, become spent, and they add only their
proportionate amount of rain to the Minnesota annual fall, while the
intermediate districts are chiefly dependent on them.

The northeast winds of spring and autumn, which sweep at times half
across the continent, usually begin at a low point along the Atlantic
coast--driving sometimes furiously, and always persistently, its
hurried, chilling current inland,--is baffled by this southwesterly
current of the Gulf, and always, sooner or later, turned, as it moves up
the coast and interior by the overpowering and underlying continental
winds which drive it back, bringing these northeasterly storms to us,
nearly always from a southwest quarter. We enlarge upon this class of
rain-storms for the purpose of showing, though imperfectly, their
non-prevalence over the State of Minnesota. This is important if it can
be, even but partially, established; since it is this particular class
of storms and winds, last referred to, that are to be so much avoided
and to which can be traced the initial point of most pulmonic troubles.

These storms from the northeast may begin in Texas, their course being
north and eastward; as that by the time they reach so northerly a point
as New York, their westward limit may not exceed St. Louis; and, in