14 NOTES ON MANITOBA. 
TEMPERATURE. 
It was long ago asserted as a principle by Geologists that, “land 
in quantity situated to the southward of lat. 40° north very ma- 
terially raises the temperature of lands lying so the north of such 
parallel.” (Sir C. Lyell.) To the expression “land in quantity,” 
I would add when its character is that of a desert or arid nature. 
Another maxim has been laid down by a well known writer ou 
American Climatology (Blodgett) “that high arid plains are indica- 
tive of great summer heat, of an arid atmosphere, and of little rain 
or snowfall. Now the conditions required to test the accuracy of 
both these propositions are presented in the position oecupied by the 
North-West Territory. South of our boundary within the United 
States lies a vast tract of land, generally arid or desert, of which at 
least 500,000 square miles are embraced in a plateau which has a 
general level of 6,000 feet. At Laramie City, in lat. 42° it is about 
7,000 feet above sea level, from thence northward it rapidly falls off 
so that when it reaches our boundary in lat. 49° at Pembina, it is 
considerably under 1,000 feet. At the base of the Rocky Moun- 
tains it is under 4,000 feet. From the boundary the plain extends 
far to the north and only terminates at the Arctic Sea. In such a 
wide range of latitude it might well be expected that a considerable 
difference of temperature would be found. The following Table, 
however, shows the temperature as being wonderfully uniform :— 
(See Metereological Report, 1878.) 
Pace. Lat. | Long. W.| May. | June. | July. | Aug. || Soi ae 
Winnipeg ....| 49.53] 97.07 59.2 | 65.8.) 63.3 || 62.8 
Fort McLeod. . | 49.39 | 113.42 60.6 | 63.3 | 57.0 | 60.3 
Norway House.| 54.00} 98.00 54.9 | 63.5 | 61.2 || 59.9 
Fort Simpson. .| 61.52! 121.25 58.8 | 63.4 | 63.2 || 61.8 
In the same parallels of lat. in Europe the temperature is recorded 
as follows: (See Blodgett.) 
PLACE. Lat. May. | June. | July. Aug. a har 
‘Penzance, S.W. England; 50.08 59.5 | 62.1 | 61.1 60.9 
Cracow, in Poland ....| 50.04 64.0 | 65.8 | 64.9 64.9 
Konigsberg, in Prussia. .| 54.42 57.4 | 62.6 | 61.7 60.6 
St. Petersburg, in Russia] 59.56 4 58.2 | 62.7 ' 60.8 60.6 
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