y ‘ 
Climate of the Canadian West. es 
north and south, conforming to the lines of coast and moun- 
tain ranges, by which their peculiarities in each case are 
governed. 
We have, then, five separate and natural divisions of the 
West, each characterized by a climate of its own, depending 
upon its natural condition, as follows :— 
1st—The Plains. 
2nd—The Rocky Mountains. 
3rd—The Interior of British Columbia. 
4th—The Coast Mountains. 
5th—The Pacific Littoral. 
Let us take these up in reverse order, and so prepare our- 
selves for a study of the Plains, in which most persons are 
mainly interested. 
It is almost needful, however, to consider the whole West 
‘as one, at first, in order to get at the philosophy of the 
subject in each separate ease. 
Remembering the northerly position of Canada, which 
gives it the general climatic features belonging to the 
Temperate Zone, we may say that every local peculiarity of 
climate in the West—at least beyond the central part of the 
Plains—is due to the arrangement of the currents of the 
Pacific Ocean, and its winds, on one hand, and to the posi- 
tion of the mountains in reference to them on the other. 
The reaction of ocean and mountains—of their influences, 
that is—upon each other, is really what makes the climate ; 
and as the ocean currents and world-winds flow uniformly 
and unceasingly, while the mountains stand as the very type 
of permanence,—this reaction is necessarily constant, 
followed, of course, by uniformity in the visible effects. 
With the course of the Gulf Stream all are familiar, and 
rightly attribute to its indirect influence the warm and 
moist climate of Great Britain and France, though those 
countries are as near to the arctic pole as the frigid cliffs 
of Labrador, where perennial winter holds sway. 
Now, in the Pacific the case is the same. A great warm 
current out of the tropical seas courses up the eastern coast 
of Asia until it is fended away by the headlands of Siberia 
