Climate of Canada. 135 
Pacific Ocean. By May ıst the whole territory of the United States is covered 
by spring and spring has advanced by May ıst into Ontario and Quebec in 
Canada. Various fluctuations occur due to the progress of cold waves across 
the continent, when according to ancient cult the ice saints Sts. Pancras, Ser- 
vatius and Boniface may be said to reign and frost may be expected in the 
month of May. From observations extending over a period of fifteen years, 
the southern limit of probable frost is represented by a line which begins at 
Cape Cod, passes down the coast to about central New Jersey, thence west- 
‚ward and southwestward, leaving the city of Cairo to the south, thence obli- 
quely through Arkansas into Texas, crossing the Rio Grande and bending 
abruptly northwestward disappears in the Pacific Ocean. With this brief but 
comprehensive review of the continental climate of North sich the parti- 
cular climate of the country will be presented. 
1. Canada, 
The climate of Canada is characterized by great heat in summer and a 
much lower temperature in winter than in corresponding European latitudes. 
The severity of the winter, as tested by the thermometer, leads to a very ex- 
aggerated impression of the subjective climatic conditions. Owing to the dry, 
clear, bracing atmosphere which generally prevails, the sense of discomfort is 
rarely experienced in a Canadian winter. There are indeed, every winter, a 
few days of intense cold, as in the summer there are brief periods of equally 
intense heat. But throughout the greater part of the winter season in the 
Dominion, the sky is bright and clear and the weather thoroughly enjoyable. 
Snow brings with it all the pleasures accompanying sleighing, skeeing an 
skating, while the farmer hails the snow as highly beneficial and protective 
to his crops. In the province of Quebec, the snow begins to lie early in 
November, in Ontario it is fully a month later, and it differs correspondingly at 
various localities throughout the country. According to the meteorologic records, 
January and February are the coldest months of the year. Throughout the 
whole of Canada steady sleighing is reckoned upon during these months. Snow 
finally disappears in Quebec about the middle of April and in Ontario about 
a month earlier. In Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island 
and on the Pacific slope, the climate is controlled by nearness to the open 
seas. Spring passes rapidly. Harvest begins before the end of July and with 
the rapidity of growth under the warm Canadian skies other crops follow in 
rapid succession until the autumn sowing of wheat is followed by the early 
oncoming of winter. In this way the Canadian climate is marked by the strik- 
ing contrast of two seasons, summer and winter and-this characteristic seems 
to be general for Manitoba presenting no marked diversity from Quebec, or 
Ontario. Spring glides insensibly into summer, summer into fine autumn weather, 
which, during the equinox, breaks up in a series of heavy gales of wind ac- 
companied by rain and snow. Then follows Indian summer and the long 
steady winter of the Canadian year. 
