Brown and White Vol. 6 no. 39

              many settlers have been lured to the western sections of kansas and nebraska during the rainy season only to be driven out by the excessive drought which succeedn it while others not relying upon the scanty rainfall have resorted to artificial means such as irriga tion water is the prime requisite of life both animal and vegetable the settler in choosing a home is controlled by the accessibility of springs the health of cities depends upon the available water supply commerce is influenced by the number and depth of waterways and manufacturers require its use to an unlimited extent the terms hydrography and hy drology are somewhat analogous to geography and geology hydro graphy being descriptive to a large extent and hydrology treating in particular of phenomena each drop of water is a part of one gen eral circulation which occupies a longer or shorter period it may be that the ocean spray drawn up by the heat of the sun strikes a cooler stratum of air and is again precipitated to the surface of the sea or perhaps the vapor carried upward is condensed and sinking into the soil reappears in the form of a spring which contributes its volume to some stream flowing back to the ocean again the vapor carried inland may strike some sandstone formation sinking many hundreds of feet into the earth where upon boring the water again rises to the surface forming an artesian well on our western coast the warm moist winds of the pacific blowing inland come into contact with the lofty peaks of the sierras and the vapor is condensed and is precip itated thus making a moist and oratorical contest the seventh annual contest of the pennsylvania inter-collegiate oratorical union was held last friday evening in the central high school building and despite the poor attendance of lehigh men wag most successful owing to the fact that mr evans presi dent of the union was a contestant and that the vice-president was absent dr drown presided in opening the contest dr drown said a few words of welcome to the visitors and explained the objects of the union and gave the reasons why this contest held this year under lehigh's auspices did not take place in a college build ing the judges were dr austin scott president of rutgers college ; mr john quincy adams of the university of pennsylvania and dr silas s neff president of the neff college of oratory the first speaker of the evening george w barager representing lehigh chose as the subject of his oration " the new american im perialism he spoke forcibly against expansion and imperialism bringing a strong array of facts and arguments to bear upon the question mr james s grim of lafay ette delivered the next oration entitled " sealed orders his dis course pointed out clearly the de sirability of the development of in dividuality and the importance of following one's own convictions in politics and religion swarthmore was most ably rep resented by miss mary e seaman who spoke on " possession through expression her oration con sisted of a plea for truth and higher development and com manded the closest attention for in subject matter style and deliv ery it was undoubtedly the finest of the many good orations deliv ered in the contest mr b f paist of ursinus was the next orator his subject the secret of american greatness he dealt with very ably natural resources a popular government the character of its people their patriotism and intellectual powers he cited as the secret of american greatness the fifth contestant was mr thomas j reisch who spoke for gettysburg on the subject " amer ica in the twentieth century " he was followed by mr f nathan fritch muhlen berg's representa tive whose oration was entitled the demagogue our danger purity in politics was the burden of this one the seventh and last speaker mr ftrnest n evans of franklin and marshall handled his rather difficult theme missions a world factor " very skillfully continued on fourth page dr scott in making tbe awards stated that the judges had been instructed to consider three things fertile region on their western slopes the winds devoid of mois ture passing over their summits leave a dry region between the sierras and the eocky mountains but as they strike the higher alti tudes of the rockies another moist region is formed while to the east of this is another dry region and still farther east a semi hum id region where agriculture thrives in the winter there is a marked decrease in temperature at the summit of the sierras hence the warm winds striking these moun tains produce abundant rainfall and but little of the moisture has an opportunity to pass farther east and thus produces a dry season east of the rockies in summer it is just the opposite the tops of the sierras being warmer do not condense much of the moisture and it passes on over the rockies pro ducing rain in kansas and ne braska thus when they are having the dry season in kansas the opposite is true of california and vice versa but between the sierra nevada range and the rocky mountain system lies a region which suffers from lack of water all the year round this is the colorado basin and is known as the region of " lost rivers here no water escapes except by direct evaporation in the east one half of the mean annual rain fall runs off that is is carried away in streams in the north atlantic states out of fifty inches of rainfall twenty five inches run off in ohio and illinois from ten to twenty inches ; farther west in kansas and nebraska five to ten inches ; while west of the rockies it dwindles to nothing our northern region from maine to minnesota is noted for innumer able lakes and marshes and in the south great swamps occupy vast areas especially in alabama louisi ana and mississippi saline lakes exist in the west and their surfaces fluctuate with the amount of rain fall continued from second page to obtain the actual amount of water flowing in a given time the velocity of the stream must also the details of hydrography con sist in acquiring data concerning the depth and velocity of streams their volume of flow per second and the amount of water discharged in a given time the volume of a stream is a variable quantity and requires a series of measurememts covering a long period of time stations are built on streams and the depth of the stream is taken once or twice a day by means of a gauge an automatic gauge used to some extent consists of a float attached by a stretched line to a wheel to this wheel is attached a pencil car riage as the float rises or falls the wheel revolves moving the carriage up or down and the pencil makes an irregular line upon a vertical cylinder arranged by clock work to revolve once a week the brown and white lehigh university south bethlehem pa tuesday march 14 1899 vol vi no 3 calendar wednesday march 15 — at 7 p.m meeting of the forum in saucon hall at 7 p m mandolin lab rehearsal at the psi u boose bethlehem thursday march 16 — at 7 p if 1 .,, meeting of the mathematical club in professor thornburg's lecture room friday march 17 at 7p m ? , joint meeting of the civil and mechanical engineering so cieties in the physical la-bora torv notices an english prize the attention of the sophomores is called to the prize for english composition so kindly established by dr henry r price v 5 this prize is awarded to that member of the sophomore class who shall write the best essay on " tennyson's dramatic works in estimating the value of these essays the great est stress will be laid upon clear ness of thought and idiomatic expression ; and in the judgment of the examiner while looking for correctness of thought put into clear and forcible english expres sion will take precedence of ideas for this specific end weight will be given to the form rather than to the matter presented all essays must be handed ins not later than april 1 . the forum the last of the semi-final debates for the selection of contestants for the lafayette debate will be held on wednesday evening at 7 o'clock the subject for debate is resolved that trusts are a menace to the united states this will be sup ported affirmatively by messrs bailey coutant and freeman and negatively by messrs bayaid fletcher and moore the mathematical club on thursday evening at 7 o'clock al'en 99 will read a paper before the mathematical club on the applications pf least squares " the mandolin club there will be a rehearsal of the mandolin club at the psi u house 28 market street bethlehem on wednesday evening march 15 all who attended the last meeting as well as any others who can play a banjo mandolin or guitar am supposed to be present pennsylvania's football schedule for next year includes games with harvard cornell carlisle chicago university and university of michigan the freshman class at haver ford college has adopted the honor system in examinations college lecture on saturday morning the third university lecture of the term was given by mr f 11 newell chief hydrograpber of the united states geological survey mr newell spoke on the subject of hydro graphy paying especial attention to western irrigation his lecture was illustrated by numerous lan tern slides many of them remark able for the beauty of the natural scenery displayed the subject matter in brief was as follows : the term hydrography may be defined in a general way as the geography of waters and may be made to include a description of coast lines lakes rivers and water sheds together with the rainfall of the various districts in the west ern part of the united states there is a region extending from missouri west to the pacific coast where scarcity of water at certain inter vals has prevented the rapid settle ment and development of the country the rainfall being only about one-fourth of what we have in the east