Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1857-01-31
From, tie National h,teHigeaeer, Dec. %.
CIimaie-the New World Of the North
west.


the frosts of the last few days, with the ther.
mometer at zero nearly it may be a fayora-
BILE time to refer to the vast areas, now coun.
ted as our own, where, at the same latitude,
roses are blooming with no check from cold
and the surface has constant verdure.
1t is not sufficiently impressed on the pub
lie mind that the entire Pacific coast within
the boundaries of the United States COM
pares in winter with the same ATTITUDES Of
Europe, and contrasts remarkably with the
Atlantic coast. Not only the extreme limit
at the forty-ninth parallel is warmer than
Washington for the winter. but distance
Ike that from Paris to Aberdeen must be
passed over beyond orr eetreme limit at The
north Of Pugets Soand to find winter as
cold as that Of this city, Washington. The
winter at Puget's Sound is warmer than that
at Paris, the mean being 1919 at the first
and $50 at Paris and the winter at Sitka is
1oafmer than that of Washington, (36Jo
and $50 respectively Notwithstanding they
differ 1So Of latitude, or nearly one thou
sand two hundred and fifty miles, in posi-
ton on the meridians. Aberdeen, in Scot
land, is somewhat warmer, having winter
temperature of 800, though at the fifty
seventh parallel.
It is not sufficiently understood that these
facts signify immense capacities for occupa-
ton of our Pacific coast, and immense in
dustrial and commercial interests. Conceive
Europe, without the wealth and population,
lying above the forty-ffth parallel, which is
now nearly our occupied limit, and we may
understand the relative capacities of the two
continents better, and may understand what
remains for us to do; conceive this vast
wealth and population added to what we al
ready have on this continent, and some idea
may be formed of what may yet be donc.-
Climate certainly permits all this; and we
have only to consider whether the vertical
CONFEDERATION and physical geography Of the
Northwest will permit it.
At Washington We were taught by TIE
experience Of last winter-and the opening
of the present repeats the lesson-that the
rivers and nayigable waters here may BE-
closed by ice for months in succession. We
getation is dormant for several months. and
in this respect the condition is practically
similar from New York to the nosth Of
Georgia, This city is near the thirty-ninth
parallel, and San francisco is nearly at the
thirty eighth; yet at this last named city il
was remarked as singular that roses d flow
ers were cut off temporarily, as hey we're il
the early part Of the last winter, tho theg
subsequently, recovered their freshness and
through February and March the tempera-
ture was as soft as that Of the south shores
OF the Aeaitarraa can. At Pueet's soma.
in Washington Territory, ten degrees oflat-
itude further north, the winter was still
mild and open. and the grass in constant
growth. Continuing along this coast to
Sitka, ten degrees of latitude still further
north, it was yet doubtless much warmer
i than at Washington, since the average for
the winter is warmer, and the changes in
extreme yerrs are there very far less.
By the recent extension of lines Of inter-
course with the Pacific, all this coast is no
longer the property of the savage makers Of
arrow-heads and of the endless variety OF
implements we have stored up as represcn-
tatives of the tribes of the Northwest Coast.
The portion under the dominion of Britain
and Russia is also the property of the energy
and commerce of the continent as whole ,
and the comfy of nations which makes it
such, i'll form and in fact, is happily shown
in our present relations with the Canadas
and British North America. Indeed, there
is no reason, in appearance or in fact, for
seyering the symmetrical relations which
the vast new areas Of the continent present
from Sonora to Russian America. The gold
Of the new Arizona, and the timber, furs,
and ice OF the Russian possessions, are al
ready exchangeable articles of a commerce
which is the dawn of an era of unequaled
energy aud splendor in the West All this
belongs to the East as we'll +; and though the
interior is formidable in many places, and
access in that direction difficult, it is at least
trayersable.
This interior has its best distinctions and
its decisive definition in its climates. CHI
mate determines the areas corresponding in
position to the north Of Africa and to Asia
Minor to be primarily deserts, with excep-
tons Of favorable character somewhat a.
gainst the rule The Lower Rio Grande,
the Estacado of Texas, the basins and 'lor-
nadas of the Rio CSrande, in New Mexico
and chihuahua, the plains of the ella, the
Great Basin, the Colorado desert, and the
singularly torrid deserts bordering on the
Gulf Of California, are all parts of whole
which has its correspondence in the vast des-
! ert areas which lie in the same ATTITUDES of
the Eastern continent, from Sahara at the
West, through Arabia, Tartary, and the
Monongalian basin, very nearly to Pekin.
This exterior fact is one which may not he
disregarded; and, though we may doubt
less make large advances on the modes of
occupation and transit belonging to the Old
World, we shall still require "ships of the
desert in some form, if not the camel it.
self, and aqueducts, "aceqnias, with other
structures for irrigation and water supply.
if we build in this region, on the Rio Grande
and Colorado, such cities as once lined tue
rivers of Persia and the Nile. We under
rate our capacity,to do, at least if we sup
pose that magnificent historical drama has
not the corresponding clements and basis for
rehearsal here
In the East, the march from Persia to
Germany was a work Of ages, and the Sean
dinayians were held in greater fear when
they were first known than we hold the
Blackfeet, Chippewas, and the '.Kutchin"
now The gloomy forests of Germany, and
the tangled morasses Of the lowlands, and
the shores Of tho Baltic, certainly were far
more repulsive than Puget's Sound and Van