METEOROLOGY. 



15 



COLD AS AN OBSTRUCTION TO THE RAILROAD ROUTE. 



It is alleged that the weather is so cold on this route that it will be impracticable to work 

 men in the construction of the road for a large portion of the year, and that it will be imprac- 

 ticable to run cars for many days in the winter. 



But we have very complete observations on these points, and great lines of railroad in 

 operation over tracts of country as cold, and even colder than the route from Fort Benton to 

 the shores of the Pacific. The following table gives the mean temperatures of the winter of 

 1853-54. at stations on the route of the expedition, with comparisons of the same winter, and 

 of the average of many winters on railroad lines in Canada, the United States, and the great 

 Russian line between St. Petersburg and Moscow. It shows also that the coldest part of the 

 route is, in reality, that between the Great Bend of the Missouri and the Mississippi, where 

 the cold is not more severe than at Quebec or Moscow: 



Comparison of mean winter temperatures. 



Thus, in the winter of 1853-54, an unusually cold one throughout the northern States and 

 Territories, the climate at Fort Benton was 12° warmer than at Montreal, 14° warmer than at 

 Quebec or Fort Snelling, 10° warmer than at Moscow, and 7° warmer than at St. Petersburg. 

 In the Bitter Root valley the difference was 0°yYo Is^^i '^ut in the following winter 4°xVo 

 greater, which is no doubt nearer the mean winter climate. 



Comparing now the greatest cold observed, we find that in Januai'y, 1854, the coldest days 

 at Fort Benton and Cantonment Stevens were from 6° to 8° milder than at Fort Snelling or 

 Montreal, and the same fact would be undoubtedly true of the great Russian route, although 

 records are not attainable, and from the great distance of the places might not be comparable 

 for the same winters. 



