18 



GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND SELKIRKS. 



precipitation data for the above three stations, so far as such data are obtainable. 

 In the first column for each station is given the total precipitation, in inches, 

 the snowfall being reduced to rain upon the supposition that 10 inches of snow 

 are equal to one of rain. In-the second column is given, for each year, the actual 

 deficiency, or excess, when the amount is compared with the normal, or average 

 for the entire series of years. In the third column the actual precipitation 

 appears as a percentage of the normal, while in the fourth there is given the 

 accumulated excess, or deficiency, to or from the beginning of the year 1897. 

 So far as we may be permitted to draw conclusions from all available data, 

 the break between the damp and the dry phases of the precipitation cycle in 

 this region occurred about 1897 i n the Rockies and 1898 in the Selkirks and we 

 may venture to predict that for another decade the precipitation will be in excess 

 of the true normal for the various mountain stations. An examination of the 

 Agassiz data, from the lower Frazer Valley, shows that while Banff and Calgary 

 were deficient, this station was accumulating an excess and that since 1897 

 there has been a marked deficiency. The inference is that we have here an 

 example of one of Bruckner's exceptional coast regions, in which, although the 

 precipitation is also in cycles, the crests of the great waves correspond with 

 the troughs over the general surface of the earth. It is very unfortunate that 

 the data from Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Victoria are not full enough to show 

 whether or not they are included in this region. 



TABLE IV. 

 PRECIPITATION DATA, BY YEARS, FOR CALGARY, BANFF. AND AGASSIZ. 



