name of Hoosier creek, and the east one retains that of Lingle. There is a branch of Lingle creek on the west side about a mile above the mouth, which has already been spoken of as watering a part of Jefferson township. Just below the point of the meeting of Hoosier and Lingle creeks is the mill once known as Lingle's Mill, but is now known as the "Bohemian Mill." Also in Big Grove township, and to the south of Lingle creek is Sells, or Mill creek. This stream is properly called Sells creek, from Anthony Sells, who settled upon it in an early day and built a mill, now known as "Hendrick's Mill." This creek forks about a half mile above its mouth, the south branch taking the name of Jordan creek. Hendrick's mill is situated upon the north branch, on Sells creek, just above where Jordan joins it. We have now passed the point where the river makes its great bend to the south, and are now traveling southward. The last stream that we crossed (Sells creek) flows westward, as do all that succeed it. Going southward the next in order, of importance is Turkey creek. Between this stream and Sells creek are to be found two or three small ones, the names of which are unknown to the writer. Turkey creek empties into the river about four miles above Iowa City. All of the streams we have crossed since leaving Sells creek are in Newport township.

South of Turkey and about two miles above Iowa City is the mouth of Rapid creek,a large stream watering the township of Graham, and part of Newport. Its principal branch leaves it on the north side, about one half mile above the mouth, and is called Sanders creek. Upon this stream there were in early days the following mill sites: Radabaugh's saw mill, near the mouth of the stream; above this one mile was Strub's mill; at the crossing of the Dubuque road was the saw mill of Henry Felkner, Esq., the first saw mill built in the county, and above this a short distance stood the Taylor, or McCrady mill.

Passing Iowa City, we find running through its limits, a small stream called Ralston creek. It was named after one of the commissioners who located the capital, Robert Ralston, Esq., of Burlington. Below the city five miles, we find Snyder creek, (originally called Gilbert creek, from the old trader, John Gilbert), which waters parts of Scott, Lucas and Pleasant Valley townships. Ten miles below Iowa City, are two small creeks, the names of which are unknown to the writer. They rise in Lincoln, flow across Pleasant Valley, then down into the edge of Fremont township, and into the Iowa river. The eastern part of Scott township is watered by the head of the Wapsinonoc, a small branch of the Cedar river; which is also the case with the east part of Graham and Lincoln townships. This completes the list of water courses within the county. The surface of the county is well diversified with groves and patches of timber, and in the northern part especially is heavily timbered [whence

the name "Big Grove" township]. All the forest tress indigenous to the northwest exist in abundance. All the varieties of oak, walnut, hickory, ash, elm, and cottonwood abound. Its springs are pure and

numerous.

A COUNTY WATER GAUGE.

January 10, 1876, in response to a request from the Iowa Weather Service, the county board ordered a water gauge to be constructed "at or near the free bridge" at Iowa City, provided the cost should not exceed ten dollars. This is the bridge at the foot of Burlington street.

SOME NAMES OF STREAMS.

Picayune Creek is in Liberty township. "Picayune" was originally the name given in New Orleans to the old Spanish 61 cent piece, and later applied to the American silver 5-cent piece. New Orleans Picayune was the name of a daily newspaper which for some years enjoyed a national reputation. In the early ferry days it cost a "picayune” (64 cents) for a man afoot to cross the Iowa riyer.

Old Maid's Creek is in Union township; said to have been so named because four old maids lived on a farm on its banks in the early days.

Hoosier Creek is in Big Grove township, and " Hoosier" being the pseudonym for natives of Indiana, it took its name from settlers from the Hoosier state.

Turkey Creek, in Newport township, was named by Sheriff Trowbridge in 1838, because it was a good place to hunt wild turkeys.

Rapid Creek, in the same township, was named also by him, on account of its roaring, rushing, rapid character, especially at the part where Henry Felkner built his saw-mill in 1839-40.

Clear Creek was also named by Trowbridge, because of its clear flowing waters. But since that time its name has been belied by the herds of cattle tramping, and the droves of swine rooting and wallowing in its banks, marshes, and tributary brooklets. The original clearness of the creek has been swapped for fresh meat.

MR. LATHROP'S REPORT ON CLIMATOLOGY.

In January, 1881, H. W. Lathrop of Iowa City read a paper before the State Horticultural Society, which, though only including Johnson county in a general way, contains so much information of value to intelligent farmers and fruit growers in this region that it is worth preserving to them and their children for permanent reference. Mr. Lathrop says:

The elements or constituents of climate are light, heat, and moisture. At the first glance of the subject one would suppose that all places in the same degree of latitude, coming under the same influence of the sun's rays, would enjoy the same degree of temperature, but such is not the case. The altitude of a locality above the sea-level, and its proximity to or remoteness from large bodies of water have much to do in giving places on the same parallel a different climate. The presence or absence

of vegetation has its effect on the temperature of a country, a bare surface absorbing the sun's rays much more than one covered with a forest or a crop. Water absorbs much more of the sun's heat, retains it longer, and gives it off more slowly than the land, hence districts of country contiguous to large bodies of water-especially when the prevailing winds blow from the water, over the land-are much warmer during the cold season than those farther inland, and do not suffer from so great degrees of heat.

In Michigan, places along the east shore of the lake in about the same latitude as central Iowa, rarely have a degree of cold below ten degrees of Fahrenheit, when we sometimes have it twenty degrees colder, and these twenty degrees in favor of the Michigan climate is the result of the heat absorbed and given off by the waters of the lake.

The state of Iowa is so far from both oceans and the great lakes that she is beyond the influence of any one of them, unless it be that an occasional east wind in the spring is colder and more humid than it would be if Lake Michigan was more remote. Ours is strictly an inter-continental climate, one of great summer heat and severe winter cold, the range of the mercury in the thermometer being one hundred and thirty degrees. Our elevation above sea-level is 444 feet in the southeast corner of the state, 660 in the northeast, 1,344 in the northwest, and 954 in the southwest, the average for the state, computed from this data, being 850. But there is an elevated ridge dividing the east from the west water-shed, extending from Dickinson county in the northwest to Ringgold county in the south, and this ridge embraces the highest land in the state, which is in the north about 1,700 feet, and in the south 1,220 feet above tide-water. Other things being equal, the highest points will suffer the greatest degree of cold and the lowest points the least, but the difference is so small and the ascent from low to high so gradual that altitude can hardly be considered a leading factor in comparing the different localities in the state with each other in reference to their climate. The descent from Iowa to the Gulf is less than half a foot to the mile.

Being remote from large bodies of water, we have less cloudiness and more sunshine than places not so situated, and hence, having a greater degree of insulation, our grains and fruits mature much earlier and more rapidly than they otherwise would. During the summer of 1858, which was a very wet season, the crop of wheat became almost worthless in consequence of the great amount of cloudiness, with a superabundance of moisture, both the straw and the grain lacking in substance and maturity, and whole fields remained unharvested.

Iowa being in the belt of perennial rains is subject to the laws which govern those rains or the rainfall, in the belt, and yet it is difficult to determine what those laws are except that a current of warm air saturated with moisture, meeting a cold one or passing into a cold medium, parts, with a portion of its moisture in the shape of fogs or rain. The greater degree of atmospheric heat, the more moisture the air can contain, hence our heaviest rains are during our periods of greatest heat.

As with heat, so with-rainfall; we are subject to great extremes. The greatest amount of rain in any one year of which we have any record was in 1851, when it amounted to a little over six feet (74.49 inches), and the least in 1854, when we had a little less than two feet (23.35 inches), the general average in the central part of the State being not far from forty inches.

In the year of 1851 there were seventeen rainy days in May, twentyone in June and fifteen in July; in 1858, May had twenty-one, June six and July sixteen rainy days. In 1854, May had thirteen, June two and July ten. In 1855 May had five, June ten, and July eight. Thus it will be seen that in two of our most rainy seasons the three months in which the crops are mostly grown had respectively fortythree and fifty-three rainy days (more than one-half), while in the two years of the least rain the same months had respectively twenty-three and twenty-five rainy days. The noticeable difference in the seasons of 1851 and 1858, was that in the former the rain came in showers, and fell in torrents, with much sunshine between the showers, while in the latter the rain fell more continuously with a great deal of cloudiness.

Although the annual rainfall is about the same now as it was a third or a quarter of a century ago, it is apparent that our springs, sloughs and rivers are discharging much less water than they did then; the breaking up of the tough impervious prairie sod, and its reduction to a loose, friable soil by constant cultivation, has increased its capacity for moisture, hence it retains much of the water that used to find its way into the streams, and it may now be questioned whether the turning and over-turning of this soil by the plow of the husbandman and its exposure to the sun and wind is not affording a moisture to the atmosphere that renders it constantly more humid than it was in the first settlement of the country. To this fact, in part, may we not attribute our failure to raise the crops of wheat we once did, and has it not produced a change in the diseases incident to human life?

The thousands of acres that were once covered with a luxuriant growth of wild grass, only pastured here and there by a few wild deer, are now the grazing grounds of myriads of cattle feeding on a "thousand hills,' and this close grazing is having its effect in reducing the quantity of our surplus water.

In the State of Iowa where the surface is not broken by any considerable ranges of hills, mountains, valleys or forests, and where all the adjacent country is of like character, the winds are most sweeping and powerful in their operations. The hyperborean blasts that come down to us from the north, with their breath whetted to the keenest edge by Minus Zero's fingers, cut like Damascus blades, and fortunate are the men, animals and plants that are protected from the surges of these frigid blizzards. The two severest drawbacks in our climate are the few days of severe cold winter weather, and our strong swiftly blowing winds.

The most destructive winds to our fruit crops are those that come from the southwest, and that make their advent soon after the blossoms have appeared, and when the embryo fruit is in its most tender stage. They come from the dry arid plains of New Mexico, Kansas and Nebraska, a region that is truly the American Desert, where moisture is the exception, and drought the general rule, and they come to us from those parched regions hot and thirsty, ready to lick up with avidity all the moisture in their course, and their scorching breath is such that the tender leaves of our trees are often shriveled and the young fruit blasted by them. The winds do not blow for a very long time, but they are very telling in their effects while they do blow. Last spring they had come and gone before the blossom-buds had opened.

If the country whence these winds come, and which lies mostly west of the hundredth meridian of longitude, should ever become irrigated by arte

sian wells, and thus be rendered habitable and productive, these winds will not come to us in the hot and dry character they now do; but that event, if it ever happens, is in the far-off future. This phase of our climate, especially in such a winter as this [1880-81], when the mercury and zero are hobnobbing nearly every day, is the strongest argument that can be presented for the extensive planting of wind-breaks.

THE IOWA WEATHER SERVICE.

Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs of Iowa City was the father and founder and master-builder of the Iowa weather service, and his faithful labors, untiring zeal, and practical skill in the work have resulted in official records and reports published by the state that have already given Iowa a rank second to no other state or country in the scientific repute of her meteorological work. The central station was established by law at Iowa City. And thus, although it is a state work, and a state institution, the credit and the honor both of its origination and its practical success belong to Johnson county, and a Johnson county man. Hence this historian has compiled from the immense mass of published data such brief facts and particulars as would have a special or local interest to the patrons of this volume, and at the same time serve to give some general idea of the sort of work that is being done for the benefit of agriculture, commerce and the economic industries, by the devotees of meteorological science.

CENTRAL STATION.

The act of the Seventeenth General Assembly of Iowa, establishing the

central station and appointing the director of the Iowa Weather Service, did not appropriate means for the erection of such an institution, nor give any compensation to the director, whose very extensive duties were defined by the same act. The problem of providing the necessary room was very pressing even during the first year of the service as a state institution. During the summer months of the year 1879 the director,