io7 COMPARATIVE STATEMENT RESPECTING THE CLIMATIC 



CONDITIONS OF CERTAIN PLACES IN THE NORTHERN 



PART OF THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN, BY C. CARPMAEL, 



F. R. S. C, DIRECTOR OF THE METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE 



OF CANADA. 



ilf/". Carpmacl to the Hon. C. H. T upper ^ M. P., Minister of Marine and 



Fisheries. 



Meteorological Office, Toronto^ December 22, 1892. 



Sir: In accordance with your request, I send you a sliort comparison 

 of the climates betweeil JMay and October of St. Paul Island, liehring 

 Island, and Kobben Island, with those of the Kurile Islands, the coast 

 of Kamtscliatka, the Aleutian Islands, and the coast of Alaska. The 

 comparison is chiefly contined to temperature, as the published infor- 

 mation wliich I have been able to lind with respect to number of rainy 

 days, fog, chmd, &c., is very meagre. Such information as I have been 

 able to find with respect to St. Paul Island seems to show that fogs and 

 light rains are of frequent occurrence. It is stated in the United States 

 Census for 1880, Eeport on the Seal Islands of Alaska, that the wind 

 in summer is always laden with fog, while a Table of observations is 

 given, which shows thirty days' precii)itation in September 1872 with a 

 total fall -!.89 inches, twenty-nine days and 3.08 inches in October, and 

 twenty-seven days with a total fall 2.38 inches in November 1872; and 

 these figures are fully confirmed by the accompanying Table referring 

 to St. Paul Island, which is comi)iled from the annual Keports of the 

 Chief Signal Ollicer, Washington. 



Mean Temperature. 



In May the mean temperature of the Aleutian Islands is a little under 

 40 degrees. At St. Paul Island 33.7 degrees, an<l Behring Island it is 

 35.7 degrees. At I'obben Island, according to the curves in the "Chal- 

 lenger" Keport, the mean temperature would be about 42 degrees, but 

 I think possibly ilie mean might be as low as 40 degrees. The mean 

 temi)eratnres in the Kurile Islands are probably between 40 and 44 

 degrees; along the south-east coast of Kamtschatka the mean is nearly 

 40 degrees, wiiile at Sitka it is 47 degrees, and at Port Simpson 48.5 

 degrees. 



In June the mean at St. Paul Islarid is 40.4 degrees, at Behring Island 

 42.1 degrees, and at Itobben Island probably about 48 degrees. The 

 "Challenger" Keport makes the Kurile Islaiuls somewhat over 55 

 degrees, but the temperature at Xenuiro, taken with those on Saghalien 

 Island and at Petropaulovski, would lead me to the conclusion that 50 

 degrees must be very uear the mean ou all of them, and the whole of 



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