IV. 



Climate. 



Mr. Dall (Alaska and Its Resources, p. 285) says that the mild 

 climate of the southern portion of Alaska is due to the Japanese 

 current, which splits on the eastern end of the Aleutian chain, the 

 smaller portion passing north to Bering Strait and preventing the 

 flow of ice southward, and the other portion sweeping south of the 

 islands, bringing a warm, moist atmosphere, which is responsible 

 for the remarkable rainfall. " To fully appreciate," says Mr. Pet- 

 roff, "how much moisture in the form of fog and rain settles upon 

 the land, one can not do better than to take a walk through one of 

 the narrow valleys to the summit of a lofty peak. He will step 

 upon what appeared from a distance to be a firm greensward, and 

 will sink to his waist in a shaking, tremulous bog." 



A report prepared by Chief Willis L. Moore, of the United 

 States Weather Bureau, on the climate of Alaska, is as follows: 



The general conception of Alaskan climate is largely due to those who go 

 down to the sea in ships, and this is not strange when we consider the vast 

 extent of shore line — over 26,000 miles — possessed by that Territory. The 

 climates of the coast and the interior are unlike in many respects, and the dif- 

 ferences are intensified in this, as perhaps in few other countries, by exceptional 

 phvsical conditions. The natural contrast between land and sea is here tre- 

 mendously increased by the current of warm water that impinges on the coast 

 of British Columbia, one branch flowing northward toward Sitka and thence 

 westward to the Kadiak and Shumagin Islands. 



The fringe of islands that separates the mainland from the Pacific Ocean 

 from Dixon Sound northward, and also a strip of the mainland for possibly 

 20 miles back from the sea, following the sweep of the coast, as it curves to 

 the northwestward, to the western extremity of Alaska, form a distinct climate 



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