The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-31
LETTER FROM A DULUrHIAN.
Rbe Northern Pacific RaIIroad-Tbe Climate
of the Northwest.
10 ns Editor Of The Evening Telegraph.

II is high time that the mis-education in
geography which most Americans now on the
stage of action received in their childhood,
when Chicago was an Indian village, and
Lake Superior an unknown sea, should be
corrected. A study of recent maps will serve
to disabuse prejudice. They will show that
the extreme north shore of Lake Superior is
upon the same latitude as Paris, that it is
about 200 miles south of the latitude of Lon
don, over 400 miles south of the latitude of
Edinburgh, and over 700 miles south of the
latitude of st. Petersburg in Russia.
THE SUMMER IsoTHERMAL LINE.
The mean temperature of spring in Mime
sofa is As deg, equal to Chicago; summer,
20 deg, equal to Northern Illinois and Phila-
delphia; autumn, 45 deg, equal to New
Hampshire and Michigan winter, 1G deg,
equal to Central Vermont and New Hamp-
shire; whole year, As deg, equal to Central
New York, two degrees farther south. Re-
membering that Minnesota is the coldest
portion of the country tributary to the North
ern Pacific, and that the above statistics are
gathered from the now more thickly settled
parts of that State, which are its coldest parts,
let us now consider the Summer isothermal
line" of seventy degrees, which in Europe
passes through Southern France Lombardy,
and the great wheat growing regions of
Southern Russia, striking our Atlantic
coast at the east end of Long Island,
and passing through Central Pennsylvania,
Northern Ohio and Indiana, and s1rting the
southern shore of Lake Michigan, diverges
northwesterly and goes north of st. Paul up
4bo Driti 70 Ioti IL so
deg, five degrees farther north than Duluth.
From the above, all will see that the North
west is not too cold for profitable farming;
consequently we read of it the following,
which is abundantly corroborated by officers
of the army and explorers: -'It is region in
all whose valleys peaches, apples, pears,
plums, cherries, grapes, and sweet potatoes
have rapid growth and complete maturity"
Professor Hind, in an official statement to
the Canadian Legislature, reported of the
Saskatchewan country, which is tJoo hundred
miles north Of tie line Of tie Northern
Pacific Railroad crops of wheat of fifty
six measured bushels to the acre, and that
forty bushels to the acre is fair return on
new land, while the yield of vegetables sur
passed in quantity and quality anything he
had ever seen before. He also reported
melons growing with the utmost luxuriance,
ripening without any artificial aid, and that
Indian corn, if an early variety be selected,
may alocayS be relied on. The wondrous
activity of the vegetative principle in this
whole region can hardly be realized by per-
sons who have not been convinced by ocular
demonstration.
THE WINTER CLIMATE.
Upon first saying anything about Duluth
to Eastern persons, I am invariably met with
this remark-''Duluth? ah, that is about a
hundred miles north of ST. Paul; it must be
geqY cold up there" 1 tell them the mercury
does not fall in winter time as low as at st.
Paul by ten degrees, the cause of which is
that the winds from off that great inland sea,
Lake Superior, which never freezes over,
modify the temperature. Grasping that
idea, they take the first step towards under
standing the increased mildness of the climate
on line west and north of Duluth. Going
from that point westward, you travel COM
paratively short distance till you feel the
influence of the Pacific winds
and strike the climatic line
of Southern Illinois. AS you press on the
climate steadily modifes, until, in Oregon
and Washington Territory, snow is novelty,
and there is almost no winter at all aside
from q rainy season, as in California. The
winters at Puget Sound, the western termi-
nus of the Northern Pacific Railroad are so
mild that summer flowers which in the lati-
tude of Philadelphia we are obliged to place
in the hot-house are there left out in the open
garden without being injured.
COMPARISONS OF TEMPERATURE.
Official records, kept at the various military
stations on the upper waters of the Missouri,
show that the average annual temperature
for a series of years has been warmer in Cen
trail Montana than at Chicago or Albany.
Lieutenant Mullen, of the United States
army, who spent four years in the region to
be traversed by the Northern Pacific, says:-
'"The temperature of Walla- Walla in 45 deg.
is similar to that of Washington city, in 38
deg. latitude, (nearly 500 miles farther SOUTH;
that of Clarks Fork in 4S deg. to that of st.
Joseph, Missouri, in latitude Al deg; that
of Bitter Root Valley in 46 deg. is similar to
that of Philadelphia in latitude 40 deg. Here
we find mild aOinters and rigorous grasses
egen in aaidOinter."
NOT TOO COLD TO OPERATE RAILROADS.
There are great lines of railroad in daily
operation over tracts of country even colder
than the route from Fort Benton to the
Pacific. Take the unusually cold winter Of
l853-54, and the mean temperature al