190 The National Geographic Magazine 



Pholo by C. Hart Merriam 



Eskimo at Plover Bay, Siberia 



the land warm, as it is in summer, they 

 carry their moisture inland and the 

 coast enjoys a comparatively dry season. 

 This season is, however, dry only in 

 comparison with the winter, the wet 

 season. The rainfall of the three winter 

 months at Sitka is commonl}^ about 30 

 inches, while that of the three summer 

 months is 16 inches, or more than half 

 that of winter. 



The fogs of this coast, really the most 

 obtrusive feature of the climate, occur 

 whenever the wind blows from the sea, 

 which it does most of the time, even 

 in summer. For obvious reasons they 

 seldom or never occur with a land breeze. 



The coast of Bering Sea has a climate 

 widely different from that of the Pacific 

 coast. The mean annual temperature 

 is much lower, even after due allowance 

 for the difference in latitude. At St. 

 Michael it is 26°, and at Port Clarence, 

 in Bering Strait, it is 20°. The range 

 of temperature is much greater. The 

 mean temperature of the coldest month 

 at St. Michael is — 2°, of the warmest 

 month 54°, showing a range of 56°. 



Similarly, at Port Clarence the coldest 

 month is — 11°, the warmest 50°, a. 

 range of 61°. The highest tempera- 

 ture on record at St. Michael is 75°, the 

 lowest — 55°, a range of 130°. The 

 contrast with the Pacific coast is still 

 greater in the matter of rainfall, which 

 at St. Michael is very light, amounting" 

 to only 14 inches annually. Moreover, 

 rain falls in the warm rather than in the 

 cold season. 



The temperature of this coast is not 

 much modified by the sea. Bering Sea 

 is practically a closed sea, the Aleutian 

 Islands forming a partial barrier against 

 the warmer waters of the Pacific ; con- 

 sequently its waters retain, to a large- 

 extent at least, the temperature incident 

 to the latitude. Its mean annual temper- 

 ature is little affected by outside influ- 

 ences, and the greater part of it is frozen, 

 for half the 3^ear. The extremes of tem- 

 perature, however, are reduced by the 

 slow absorption and radiation of heat, 

 just as with the Pacific. As this region- 

 is north of the territory of the prevail-? 

 ing westerlies, the winds have no preva- 



