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 Fe, 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.

It is, however, known that countries are usually dependent, for the beneficent rains falling over them, on oceans quite remote, where the sun, in its tropical splendor and power, lifts high in air immense volumes of water in a state of evaporation, which, borne on the “wings of the wind,” speeds rapidly away to supply the drying rivers and fountains of the globe.  This aerial pathway supplies the link in the great circuit by which all the waters of all the oceans pass over our heads, returning again under our feet to their natural home.

Of course the water area of all sections of the temperate latitudes contribute something to the precipitation; yet it is but a fractional part of the whole, and quite inconsiderable.  Still its influence is sufficient to make it observable near large seas like our own inland system, where the quantity falling is, in the cooler portions of the year, increased in consequence of the then higher temperature of the water of the lakes over that of the adjacent land districts.  In summer, the only effect is to increase the humidity of the atmosphere and frequency of rains, without adding to the quantity.  This phenomenon is seen on the shores of all the lakes, and especially in the Lake Superior region.  But this influence does not extend westward to exceed the distance of, we should say, fifty miles, and does not consequently effect to any important degree the climate of Minnesota, except the outlying rim described.  The small lakes and rivers do not contribute much to the precipitation of rain within the State boundaries.  They may add slightly to that of the lake district to the eastward, whither their moisture is borne by the southwesterly and westerly currents.  They do undoubtedly have an influence on the temperature, modifying that of the winter very much, and in this respect are valuable as well as beautiful.