IV. 
Climate. 
Mr. Dali (Alaska and Its Resources, p. 285) says that the mild 
climate of the southern portion of Alaska is due to the Japanese 
current, which splits on the eastern end of the Aleutian chain, the 
smaller portion passing north to Bering Strait and preventing the 
flow of ice southward, and the other portion sweeping south of the 
islands, bringing a warm, moist atmosphere, which is responsible 
for the remarkable rainfall. “To fully appreciate,” says Mr. Pet- 
rotf, “how much moisture in the form of fog and rain settles upon 
the land, one can not do better than to take a walk through one of 
the narrow valleys to the summit of a lofty peak. He will step 
upon what appeared from a distance to be a firm greensward, and 
will sink to his waist in a shaking, tremulous bog.” 
A report prepared by Chief Willis L. Moore, of the United 
States Weather Bureau, on the climate of Alaska, is as follows: 
The general conception of Alaskan climate is largely due to those who go 
down to the sea in ships, and this is not strange when we consider the vast 
extent of shore line—over 26,000 miles—possessed by that Territory. The 
climates of the coast and the interior are unlike in many respects, and the dif¬ 
ferences are intensified in this, as perhaps in few other countries, by exceptional 
physical conditions. The natural contrast between land and sea is here tre¬ 
mendously increased by the current of warm water that impinges on the coast 
of British Columbia, one branch flowing northward toward Sitka and thence 
westward to the Kadiak and Shumagin Islands. 
The fringe of islands that separates the mainland from the Pacific Ocean 
from Dixon Sound northward, and also a strip of the mainland for possibly 
20 miles back from the sea, following the sweep of the coast, as it curves to 
the northwestward, to the western extremity of Alaska, form a distinct climate 
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