The New York herald., 1870-01-11

can give him the Information he wants, and
they are not interested in giving him the
wrong kind of information. BY all means let
the bill be pushed. It Is a blow for the people
against monopoly.
The Climate OF Ala ska-very Remarkable
and Interesting Facts. s.
We are indebted to Professor Doremus for
some very remarkable and interesting facts
and statistics, communicated to him from Mr..
J. A.. .Tonner, resident of Sitka, Alaska, on
the climate and products Of that locality. We
will first give the facts thus received and then
some explanation Of their peculiarities for the
information Of the general reader.
First, then, Sitka is the largest town in
Alaska q town Of about sixty houses and
eight hundred inhabitants, chiefly Russians,
Of the lower class, but divided from 1t only by
stockade is an Indian village of nine hum
dred souls more. The products Of the regions
round about are limited to fish, furs and tim
ber. Potatoes, turnips, radIshes and onions
| can be raised, but they are small. They have
there over thirty varieties OF indigenous
grasses; but hay cannot be cured-not sun
enough. Coal is found within thirty miles Of
Sitka, but it is so bituminous that it has burned
out the smoke stacks Of steamers using it.
| Gold is found in several localities, but not In
paying quantities. The mountain tops behind
| Sitka are white oil summer; but along the
coast there, near the sea level, it seldom SHOWS,
| even In winter, and the thermometer hardly
foil ha1O t1a rroa inf
| 23d of December at Sitka the night takes up
| the whole twenty-four hours, and about the
| 23d of June the evening daylight blends into
that Of the morning. The coolest day, from the
records of whole year at Sitka, did not reach
| lower than twenty-five degrees above zero
and the warmest point Of the warmest day
marked sixty-nine degrees above zero. There
were two hundred and eighty-four cloudy and
rainy days in the year and fifty fair days, and
only five days Of snow at that point Of the sea-
board in that high latitude. The rainfall of
the year there was ninety-two inches, or about
three times the average rainfall Of New York.
They had fourteen inches of rain in Sitka in
February last, which is equal to about four
| teen Of our heaviest summer storms.
Now, how are we to account for this remark
able climate of Sitka? We have heretofore
touched upon it, but the facts submitted viii
justify fuller explanation. First, then,
between the Afty-Hfth and sixtieth parallels Of
north latitude there is string Of islands with
narrow selvage of the sea coast, say fifty
miles wide, between the sea and the coast
range Of mountains, which selvage may be
called the panhandle of Alaska; and Mount
st. Elias, seventeen thousand eight hundred
feet high, at the northern junction Of this pam
handle with the main territory, may be called
the silvery frosted rivet binding the handle to
the pan. Stka, near the fifty-seyenth degree
Of north latitude, is in the centre Of this pam
handle. The pan itself, or about four hundred
thousand square miles Of territory, lying
between the sixtieth and SEVENTEEN degrees of
latitude, is absolutely worthless except to the
! hunter and the trapper.
| But how is it that at Sitka the cold seldom
sinks the mercury lower than twenty 1.-TWO
degrees above zero, while in the same latitude
in the northern extremity Of Labrador the cold
for weeks together is forty degrees below
zero and snow covers the land oil the year
roundp How is it that at Sitka, above the
latitude of Moscow, they have hardly colder
day in winter than they have in New Orleans,
and nearly three times the annual average
rainfall Of New York? The prevailing westerly
winds In our Northern hemisphere, and the
great equatorial ocean current of warm water
which from Japan sweeps around and across
the Northern Pacific Ocean and down by
Alaska, British Columbia and Oregon, explain
it all. The same causes, on smaller scale,
applied to the Gulf Stream make the pleasant
climate Of the British islands. On the con-
trary the comparatively cold and dry climate
of the Atlantic slope of North America is due
to the prevailing westerly winds blowing over
frozen continent in winter and from great
mountain ranges covered with snow even in
summer. The horribly cold climate of New
England, Newfoundland, Labrador and Green
land is, however, partly due to the cold Arctic
current which, with its icebergs from Bafin's
Bay, flows down into the Atlantic between our
sea coast and the Gulf Stream from the South.
But Of what practical utility is all this It
is Of the greatest practical utility in reference
to the movements Of emigration from one
country to another. For example, in these
facts and figures from Alaska, knowing the
enduring causes thereof, we know that Mr..
Seward, in his estimate of that vast region, is
wrong and that General Thomas is right, and
that Alaska, to the white man, excepting that
little aforesaid selvage Of sea islands and sea
coast, will be utterly worthless and uninhabit-
able for perhaps ten thousand years to come.
art yesterday introduced new style Of postal
telegraph bill in the Senate. He proposes to
make the money saved by abolishing the frank
ing privilege q construction fund for erecting
government telegraph lines Thus two obnox-
L;aaa 4ha salxixses x,n;s;l kL