10 



the higher latitudes, than it is in the interior, or in corresponding 

 latitudes on the Atlantic coast ; this is easily explained and understood 

 when the natural forces productive of this milder temperature are con- 

 templated. The most important among them is a thermal current 

 resembling the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. This current, known as 

 the Japanese or Kuro Siwo, has its origin under the equator near the 

 Molucca and Philippine Islands, passes northward along the coast of 

 Japan, and crosses the Pacific to the southward of the Aleutian Islands, 

 after throwing a branch through Bering Sea, in the direction of Bering 

 Straits. The main current strikes the Queen Charlotte Islands, where it 

 divides, one branch going south along the coast of British Columbia, 

 while the other turns northward towards Sitka, and thence westward to 

 the Kadiak and Shumagin islands. The comparatively warm waters of 

 these currents affect the temperature of the superjacent atmosphere, 

 which, absorbing the latent heat, carries it to the coast with all its 

 mollifying effects. Thus the oceanic and atmospheric currents combine 

 in mitigating the coast climate of Alaska, and the process is greatly 

 aided by the configuration of the extreme north-western shores of the 

 continent, backed as they are with an almost impenetrable barrier of 

 lofty mountains, which holds back from the interior the warm, moist, 

 atmospheric currents coming in from the ocean, deflecting at the same 

 time the ice-laden northern gales coming from the interior. 



The force of these influences as mitigating the coast climate of 

 Alaska becomes evident, when it is stated that the mean winter tempera- 

 ture of Sitka is nine degrees higher than that of Halifax, although Hali- 

 fax is nearly 900 miles further south than Sitka. 



It is obvious that with the presence of these warm, moist, currents, 

 precipitation must be great, and so it is. The greatest rainfall on the 

 continent of America is found on its north-west coast. The maximum 

 recorded annual precipitation is 134 inches, or a little over eleven feet. 

 Here in Ottawa we have about three feet, and think ourselves fairly well 

 supplied at that. 



It is not alone the excessive rain that makes the coast of Alaska 

 somewhat undesirable as a pjace of abode, but the rain that does not 

 come down, the mist and fog. The number of days in a year on which 



