Vegetation of Northern Cape Breton. 271 



lies inland, about fifty miles west of St. John. Of the three 

 remaining- stations, Quebec and Montreal are situated in southern 

 Quebec, about 200 miles from the seacoast, and Port Arthur is 

 located in western Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Superior. 

 This latter station is introduced, partly because it exemplifies the 

 relatively continental as compared with the relatively maritime 

 type of climate, and partly because of its proximity to Isle Royale, 

 the scene of Cooper's investigations ('13). 



Northern Cape Breton may be said to possess a cool-temper- 

 ate, maritime climate. In the following paragraphs the general 

 climatic features of this region are briefly summarized, and atten- 

 tion is called to certain dififerences between the climate of the 

 plateau and that of the lowland. 



a. GENERAL CLIMATIC FEATURES OF NORTHERN CAPE BRETON 



Temperature. — As compared with regions which are not in 

 close proximity to the ocean, the temperature here is more equable. 

 Some idea of the difference is suggested by the figures in Table II. 

 It will be seen here, for example, that the disparity between the 

 mean temperatures for the warmest and coldest months of the 

 year at Sydney is only 43°, as compared with 53° at Frederickton, 

 and 55° or more at Quebec, Montreal, and Port Arthur. This 

 same dissimilarity between coastal and interior regions is brought 

 out by comparing the extreme maximum and minimum tempera- 

 tures for the year at the various stations. The winters in north- 

 ern Cape Breton are long and cold, but extremes of temperature 

 such as prevail toward the interior of the continent are seldom 

 experienced (see Table II). Spring- is sometimes very late in 

 arriving, owing partly to the quantity of drift ice in the adjacent 

 waters. The summers are short and cool, but there are only 

 three months in the year when the mean monthly minimum at 

 Sydney is lower than 32°. This latter fact is in marked contrast 

 to the conditions at Port Arthur (see Cooper '13, p. 8), where 

 the mean monthly minimum is higher than 32° only during June, 

 July, and August. 



Precipitation. — In common with other regions along the 

 Atlantic Coast the precipitation in northern Cape Breton is 

 copious and is well distributed over the entire year. More than 

 60 per cent, of it comes during the period of comparative vegeta- 

 tive inactivity, a condition quite the reverse of what prevails in 



