Show LAKES DRYING UP A curious fact to ie reported potted re from minnesota one that may have an important effect upon the climatic conditions of that great and growing state this to ie no less leas than the gradual drying up of the hakea which covered the whole region and in eases their total disappearance within the our eur keyed limits of minnesota which haa ban appropriately been called we the ijane 1 there were according to an official report published a few years yeara ago about kieven thousand of chete bodies of of greater or lose leea ex tent now however many of them have dried up entirely and fields and farms now occupy their former site alte while the net with few exceptions have greatly shrunk in volume and are slowly lowly disappearing the st paul pioneer press freeo la in a re T cent centis issue eue devotes devoted considerable space apace to reports on this grave physical change from various parts of the state and presents the views of numerous correspondents as to the causes these are generally accepted as two in number first to the diminished rainfall of the last ten and especially of the lat six or seven years and second in the cultivation of the soil oil in their neighborhood which has absorbed the ral rai fall that would otherwise have been drained into the lakes there is little doubt that this explanation to is the true one but it at once leads to another question and that is whether the drying up aud and disappearance referred to is in permanent the pioneer press answers yes so far as the smaller and shallower lakes are concerned but as to the larger lakes fed by streams or by adequate drainage areas it predicts that they will be gradually filled up again nearly if not quite to their old level for there is no reason to suppose that hat the diminished rainfall ralo fail of minnesota and dakota during the last eight or nine years indicates a permanent perman ent change of climate it continue to the cycle of dry years we have recently been passing through is sure to succeed a cycle of wet years the pioneer press agrees with those of its correspondents who believe that eventually a 8 few seasons of heavier precipitation will replenish the wasted waters of irany of these vanished or shrunken lakes they will probably never again reach their maximum mu m levels in the past for the reason already stated the encroachment of agriculture ri on their basins of water supply of the lakes of minnesota in 1885 it is quite probable that as the result of ol 01 the cultivation ot of the soil perhaps a third or more of them will permanently disappear the remainder will fluctuate in volume with the average rainfall shrinking materially during successive dry seasons and reappearing in all ali their ancient beauty when the rain cornea comes back to fill their empty bowls |