"The peculiar benefit of the climate appears to be its dryness. There is
much rain in the summer months, as elsewhere, but it comes more
generally in the night, and the days that follow brighten out in a
fresh, tonic brilliancy, as dry, almost, as before. The winter climate
is intensely cold, and yet so dry and clear and still, for the most
part, as to create no very great degree of suffering. One who is
properly dressed, finds the climate much more agreeable than the
amphibious, half-fluid, half-solid, sloppy, gravelike chill of the East.
The snows are light--a kind of snow-dew, that makes about an inch, or
sometimes three, in a night. Real snowstorms are rare; there was none
the winter I spent there. A little more snow, to make better sleighing,
would have been an improvement. As to rain in winter it is almost
unknown. There was not a drop of it the season I was there, from the
latter part of October to the middle, or about the middle, of March,
except a slight drizzle on Thanksgiving Day. And there was not melting
snow enough, for more than eight or ten days, to wet a deerskin
moccasin, which many of the gentlemen wear all winter."

The Rev. H.A. Boardman, D.D., of Philadelphia, writes under date of
October, 1868, to a public journal, the following: "* * * The question
is often asked, 'how far is St. Paul to be recommended as a resort for
invalids?' If one may judge from indications on the spot, invalids
themselves have settled this question. I have never visited a town
where one encounters so many persons that bear the impress of delicate
health, present or past. In the stores and shops, in the street and by
the fireside, it is an every-day experience to meet with residents who
came to Minnesota, one, two, five, or ten years ago, for their health,
and having regained, decided to remain. I have talked with some who,
having recovered, went away twice over, and then made up their minds
that to live at all they must live here. * * * * *"

The statements of these observing and reflecting men are of the first
importance, and require no scientific deductions to prove the benefit
certain classes of consumptives may receive by a residence in Minnesota;
but if it is found that whatever of data in meteorology there is bearing
on the climate of this State, confirms the universal public judgment,
this then becomes a matter of most agreeable interest.

It seems that the _dryness_ and _equability_ are the important
features, as