Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1870-03-12
WHOLE NO 4S7.
The Climate Of Alaska-Very Remarka-
ble and Interesting Facts.

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The Climate Of Alaska-very Remarka-'
bic and Interesting Facts. r =
We are indebted to Professor Doremus
for some very remarkable and interesting
facts and statistics, communicated to hinY
from Mr.. j. A. Tonner, a resident Of.
Sitka, Alaska, on the climate and products
Of that locality. We will first give the,
I facts thus received and then some cxE!an-
alton Of their peculiaritics for the informa-
tion of the general reader.
First, then, Sitka is the largest town in
Alaska, a town Of about sixty houses and
eight hundred inhabitants, chiefly Russi-
ans, of the lower class, but divided from
it only by stockade is an Indian village
of nine hundred souls more. The pro-
ducts Of the regions round about are limi-
ted to fish, furs and timber. 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 in thirty miles of Sitka, but,
it is so bitumious 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 all summer; but
along the coast there, near the sea level,
it seldom SHOWS, even in winter, and the
thermometer hardly ever falls below the
freezing point. About the 23d of Decem-
Der at Sitka the night takes up the whole
twenty-fo 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 tho
warmest day marked sixty-nine degrees
above zero. There were two hundred and
eighty-fo 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 tho
year there was only 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 fourteen of our heaviest
summer storms.
Now, how are We to account for this re-
markablc climate of Sitka? We have
heretofore touched upon it, but the facts
submitted will justify fuller explanation.
First, then, between the fifty-fifth and
sixtieth parallel Of north latitude there is
q string of islands with a narrow sclvage
on the sea coast, say fifty miles wide, be-
tween the sea and the coast range of noun
tains, which sclvage 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. Sitka, near the fifty-
seventh degree Of north latitude, is in the
center of this pan handle. The pan itself,
or about four hundred thousand square
miles of Territory, lying between the six
tieth and seventeenth degrees of latitude,
is absolutely worthless except to the hun
ter and trappcr.
But how is it that at Sitka the cold
seldom sinks the mercury lower than
twenty-five degrees above zero, while in
the same latitude in the northern extren-
ity Of Labrador the cold for weeks togeth-
er is forty degrees below zero and snow
covers the land all the year round, How
is it that at Sitks, above the latitude Of
Moscow, they have hardly colder day in
winter than they have in New Orleans.
and nearly :hree times the ANIMAL average
rainfall in New York, The prevailing
westerly winds in our Northern hetai-
sphere, and the great equatorial ocean ea.-
rent Of warm water which from Japan
sweeps around and across the Northern
Pacific Ocean and down BY Alsska, British
Columbia, and Oregon. explain It all The
same causes, on a similar scale, applied 30
the Gulf Stream make the pleasant climate
Of the British islands Ga the contrary
the comparatively cold and dry climate sf
the Atlantic slope Of North Aaserica %
due to the prevailing westerly wiads blcr-
ing over frozen continent in wiaser aed
from grea; mountain ranges covered with
snow even in the summer. The horribly
cold climate of New England. Sewssasd-
land, Labrador and Greenland is. however
due to the cold Arctic current which.
With its ieebergs from Bsfzn's Bay, 6ows
down into the Atlantic between oar sea
cosss and the Calf Strean frun the Scrtk
But Of what practical utility 10 al sAse
Ii Is OF the greatest practical ussl.ty in ssE
erence to the movements OF sm-@rat5on
from one esuntry to another. Fsvexxnpse
10 these facts and kgurcs fron AhSkz.
ksewiny the emdsrinx courses sheregf, vr
know that Mr. Seward in his essiu.aas II
that vast region. is vrsag. and that Ces-
ersl Thomas is right, aad that Alaska. -
the white man, excepting that Estl< sfsrr-
said seiv.Se of sea isisnis sna sea csss1s.
viii be sfsesiy vsrshless and s.isksii6nr
BE Cor perhaps ten shc.sssd yssrs =
eone.-Ecx Ysrk H<-sld -