EXPLORATION TO THE PEACE RIVER 93 



everything that can be desired and a larger number of settlers 

 with more advanced ideas of agriculture is alone required to make 

 Vancouver Island what nature intended it to be — the Garden of 

 Canada on the Pacific Coast. 



In accordance with my instructions, I left Victoria on May 

 14th, on the Steamer "Enterprise," for New Westminster. Our 

 approach to the mouth of the Fraser was indicated, before we 

 reached the light-ship, by the muddy appearance of the water, 

 while extensive mud banks and low marshy grounds gave evidence 

 of the immense quantities of detritus brought down by the Fraser. 

 As we passed up, marsh gave place to meadow, and soon, the 

 meadow, to a thick jungle of willow and other bushes which grad- 

 ually merged into forest that would vie with a tropical one for 

 luxuriance. 



Early on the morning of the 1 5th, we were again under way 

 and reached Harrison River about dark. I found the vegetation 

 further advanced here than at Victoria. The white thorn (Cra- 

 taegus) was in flower and the shoots on the trees had made more 

 growth. 



"I may mention here what seems to me the cause of the mild 

 climate of the Pacific Coast, and, in my opinion, it is precisely 

 the same as that of Western Europe. A stream of warm water, a 

 little south of the Island of Formosa on the southern coast of 

 China, a current analogous to the Gulf Stream, is observed moving 

 to the north east. It passes east of Japan and, while a part of it 

 enters the Behring Sea, the remainder passes through to the 

 Aleutian Islands and ameliorates the climate of Alaska to such a 

 degree that the annual temperature of Sitka, in latitude 57 degrees, 

 is higher than that of Ottawa, in latitude 45 25', the mean annual 

 temperature of the former being 44.8 degrees Fahr. while the latter 

 has 37.4 degrees. Esquimalt, within three miles of Victoria, in lati- 

 tude 48 25', has a mean annual temperature of 47.4, only three 

 degrees higher than that of Sitka which is nine degrees further 

 north. With these facts, the temperature of Sitka and Esquimalt, 

 it is very easy to forecast the future of the whole region west of 

 the Cascades between Victoria and the Stikeen River. The 

 Queen Charlotte Islands, being more insular than Vancouver 



