II. 



ENVIRONMENT— ORGANIC AND INORGANIC; AND CHARACTERISTICS OF 

 THE INDIANS-PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND 

 ESTHETIC. 



ENVIKONMENT. 



The physical character of the region occupied by the Tlingit, Haida, 

 and Tsimshian is similar in general to that of southern British Colum- 

 bia, but for local reasons this area has a peculiar climate. A branch of 

 the warm Japanese current sweeps along the coast, and, coming in con- 

 tact with the colder air and water of the north, gives rise to excessive 

 humidity, producing in summer the rains and fogs, and in winter the 

 snows and sleets, that are so prevalent in this region. Thermometrical 

 observations, extending over a period of fifty years in the region about 

 Sitka, give the lowest winter temperature as 4° Fah. below zero, the 

 mean winter temperature being about 33° Fah., the same as in 

 Washington, District of Columbia. In the summer, ou the contrary, 

 the rainy and overcast days so predominate, that the temperature never 

 rises above 90° Fah. The maximum recorded about Sitka is 81^ Fah. 

 With an annual rainfall of from 60 to 95 inches and an average of be- 

 tween one hundred and ninety and two hundred and eighty-five days 

 in the year on which rain has been known to fall,* the climate may be 

 said to have its drawbacks. The shortest winter days are from four to 

 five hours long, while the summer nights are correspondingly brief. lu 

 the long summer days, when the weather is fine, the atmosphere is won- 

 derfully clear, and the scenery fairly sparkles with an excessive brilliancy 

 due to exceptional hygrometric conditions. 



The territory is very broken and subdivided. It is densely wooded 

 with spruce, hemlock, white pine, fir, birch, alder, and underbrush, the 

 vegetation crowding down to the high-water line. It is also very mount- 

 ainous, and indented with bays and arms of the sea. The waters are 

 deep and the tidal currents swift, the tides rising and falling twice a 

 day through a range of from 12 to 21 feet, making navigation in places 

 extremely hazardous. Travel is entirely by water, the villages being 

 on the water courses, and the canoe here reaches its highest develop- 

 ment. Huge landslides in the face of the mountains, snow-capped 

 ranges with sparkling glaciers in the sides and valleys, floating glacier 

 ice in the bays and straits, and the bright green vegetation everywhere, 

 all these give a characteristic beauty to the scenery of this region. 



* Dall, Alaska, p. 451. 



235 



