414 Our North Land. 



come under my observation. I have traversed Kansas, Nebraska, 

 Wyoming and Colorado, and in none of them have I seen the depth 

 of rich soil that I saw on the line of the C. P. R. R. The soil 

 around Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie, Brandon and Regina, is the 

 richest I have ever seen ; and as to the climate, I visited it for the 

 sake of my health, which for some time previous was much shattered 

 and received more benefit from my month's stay in the North-West 

 than I believed possible. I found myself capable of more physical 

 exertion than I could possibly have stood in this climate at any 

 time within the past ten years. A walk of ten miles, which I made 

 without extra exertion in two and a quarter hours, fatigued me less 

 than a walk a third the distance would have done here. The climate 

 is bracing and exhilarating beyond any hitherto experienced by me." 

 The following extract is taken from the work on Climatology 

 by the eminent American author, Mr. Blodgett. The statements are 

 in themselves interesting, and contain principles of the greatest 

 importance. Both have been verified in a remarkable manner by 

 the evidence of facts since the author's pages were written : — " By 

 reference to the illustration of the distribution of heat, we see that 

 the cold at the north of the great lakes does not represent the same 

 latitude farther west, and that beyond them the thermal lines rise 

 as high in latitude, in most cases, as at the west of Europe. Cen- 

 tral Russia, the Baltic districts, and the British islands, are all repro- 

 duced in the general structure, though the exceptions here fall 

 against the advantage, while there they favour it through the influ- 

 ence of the Gulf Stream. Climate is indisputably the decisive con- 

 dition, and when we find the isothermal of 60° for the summer ris- 

 ing on the interior American plains to the 61st parallel, or fully as 

 hio-h as its average position for Europe, it is impossible to doubt the 

 existence of favourable climates over vast acres now unoccupied. 



" This favourable comparison may be traced for the winter also, 

 and in the average for the year. The exceptional cold for the 

 mountain plateaux, and of the coast below the 43rd parallel, mask 

 the advantage more or less to those who approach these areas from 

 the western part of the Central States, and from the coast of Cali- 

 fornia ; but though the distant mountain ranges remain high at the 



