G.H.R.

LETTERS FROM OUR YOUNG FRIENDS.

We have received two very interesting letters, one from E.J.K., 461 West
43d Street, and one from C.H.K., 504 West 44th Street. We thank these
friends for their kind letters, but are unable to print them at length.

_To the Editor._

DEAR SIR:--In your article in No. 51, on the forest fires
and drought following a very wet season, and remarking that
we should have such extremes, is it not due--our
irregularity of climate--to our careless devastating of
whole portions of the country of trees? Many claim so. We
are in sore need of national or state foresters. [Signed]
INQUIRER.

DEAR INQUIRER:

While vegetation has something to do with the climate, the sudden
changes to which we are subject are due to the configuration of the
land. The Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Range rising at either
edge of the continent form the immense valley through which the
Mississippi takes its course; and these two factors of the high
mountains and the broad plains have the greatest influence on the
climate.

Our immense length of seaboard and the proximity of the Gulf Stream are
also agents for engendering our variable climate.

Trees protect moisture from rapid evaporation, and a wooded country is a
blessing to its inhabitants, defending their dwellings from wind in
mountainous districts.

The denudation of the forests tends to destroy the moisture of the
atmosphere, but has little effect on the sudden transitions from heat to
cold.

EDITOR.

MR. WILLIAM B. HARISON.

DEAR SIR:--Thank you very much for the box-kite. It arrived
the day before yesterday, and works admirably.

Truly yours,
ELEANOR H.

DEAR ELEANOR:

We are glad you like the kite, and that it flies well.

We witnessed a very funny attempt to fly one of our kites lately. It
took the small owner of the kite, his mamma, papa, and two friends to
make the effort, and even then failed, notwithstanding that the papa and
the friend climbed the fence at the risk of their necks in their
endeavor to reach the breeze.

On serious reflection we decided that the kite did not fly because there
was no breeze to fly it with, and therefore we reco