BRITISH COLUMBIA 



934 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 



The shore line is indented by hundreds of 

 fiords and smaller inlets, which have been 

 caused by the partial submergence of the 

 range. This coast is one of the most remark- 

 able in the world, and with all its irregularities 

 has a total shore-line of about 7,000 miles. If 



BRITISH 

 COLUMBIA 



SCALE OF MILES 



100 200 

 ffat-igalle 

 Riven 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 



The map locates the principal cities, chief 

 rivers, coal measures now being worked, bound- 

 aries and highest point of land. 



this coast-line were straightened out it would 

 reach from New York westward to Yokohama, 

 Japan, or from Vancouver to Yokohama and 

 back again as far as the Hawaiian Islands. 



Queen Charlotte Islands and Vancouver 

 Island are the only remains of a mountain 

 range which ages ago was a part of the main- 

 land. The Pacific side of the islands has many 

 inlets, but not as large or as numerous as 

 those on .the mainland. Mount Victoria, on 

 Vancouver Island, has an altitude of 7,484 

 feet, the highest peak of the Island Range. 



Influence of the Mountains on Climate. If 

 British Columbia had no mountains, if it were 

 flat, like Saskatchewan, its climate would prob- 

 ably be nearly uniform in every part. As it is, 

 however, the parallel mountain ranges run at 

 right angles to the prevailing winds from the 

 west. This makes a marked difference in the 

 climate of the east and west, and creates a 

 number of longitudinal zones. Thus the trav- 

 eler who journeys along the coast from Skag- 

 way, Alaska, to Vancouver will have about 

 the same weather during his entire trip, but 

 if he should move eastward either from Skag- 

 way or Vancouver he would encounter new 

 conditions as soon as he crossed the mountains. 



The climate of the coast is like that of 

 Western Europe. The prevailing westerly 

 winds are warm and are loaded with moisture 



absorbed in their passage over the ocean. 

 When they strike the cool summits of the Coast 

 Range, condensation of the moisture takes 

 place rapidly, causing a large amount of rain- 

 fall. The average annual rainfall is from 

 eighty to ninety inches, about the same as that 

 of Southern England. At Victoria, which is 

 farther north than the city of Quebec, where 

 the cold becomes intense, the temperature dur- 

 ing January very seldom falls to the freezing 

 point, and flowers often bloom in the gardens 

 all the year. 



After the warm winds have lost most of 

 their moisture and have become cooled, they 

 rise to a height of 7,000 to 9,000 feet to cross 

 the Coast Range. As they pass over the val- 

 leys and the great Central Plateau they are 

 kept at this height by the warm currents 

 rising from the plains. Because there is no 

 obstruction in the path of the winds, nothing 

 to cause them to lose their remaining moisture, 

 the interior has little rain in summer and only 

 light snow in winter. Droughts and extremes 

 of heat and cold are common. At Kamloops, 

 which is only 200 miles from the coast, the 

 annual rainfall seldom exceeds twelve inches, 

 and the temperature ranges from 25 to 30 

 below zero to 100 above. 



The prevailing westerlies retain some of their 

 heat and moisture as they cross the interior 

 plateau, but when they strike the snowy peaks 

 of the Rocky Mountains they lose the last 

 of these. The western slopes of these ranges, 

 especially the Selkirk Mountains, have an 

 annual rainfall nearly as heavy as that of the 

 Pacific coast, and in the mountain passes it 

 it is not unusual for snow to reach a depth 

 of twenty-five to thirty feet. The lower parts 

 of the western slopes are covered with exten- 

 sive forests, and the heavy snows feed many 

 great glaciers. It is this section, more than 

 any other, which has received the name of 

 "the Switzerland of America." 



Plant and Animal Life. The wild life of 

 British Columbia is not extremely varied, and 

 all of it belongs to the type called northern 

 or northwestern. Wherever there is rain there 

 is abundant vegetation, from mosses to great 

 forests. The western slopes of the Coast 

 Range, the Selkirks and the Gold Range con- 

 stitute probably the greatest a*reas of virgin 

 timber in North America. It is estimated that 

 the great forests of the province, excluding 

 sparsely-timbered areas, cover 30,000,000 acres, 

 of which 2,500,000 acres have been set aside 

 as Dominion forest reserves. There are also 



