Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1884, 1879-06-28
CLIMATE or THE NORTHWEST.
The Elects Produced by the Japan
Current.


thousand miles northwest Of Bismarck is
found region far superior, for agricul-
ture, to the State of Wisconsin; and it is
still harder to believe that thousand
miles further west, along the coast of
Alaska, there is a region where frosts are
unknown. Were these facts generally
known and accepted, people would un.
derstand why there is such rush of i'm.
migration to the great northwest We're
the effects of the Japan current on the
great northwest understood, as the effect
of the Gulf stream on the coasts it touches
is understood, people would understand
why early vegetables are had in this re-
gion before they make their appearance
in northern Ohio; why winter on the Pa
cific coast in the latitude of Montreal be-
comes rainy season; why the Peace
river country is more productive than the
Iowa valley; why Bismarck will make a
city of fifty thousand people within the
next twenty years
A writer in the New York Sun refers
to this matter and gives the followlng e
statement of Governor Conchan, of Mani
toba: Speaking Of changing the line of
the Canadian Pacific he said:
"We find that it is much warmer up in
latitude IS, Sc, 81 and 59, up around Peace
and Atha basca rivers, than it is down in
latitude 40 at Winnipeg. In fact it is
very much warmer up around Great Stove
Lake and the Mckenzie river than it is at
Winnipeg. They raise wheat, barley, and
Indian corn up there. This is the effect
of the wind blowing from the Japanese
Gulf Stream. This wind is called the
chinook wind by the Indians. It blows
up along the coast of British Columbia,
making Victoria as warm as San Francis
co. In fact, the Caronintilla rose, the
fuchsia, and the heliotrope grow out doors
all winter at.Victoria Now, upon Peace
river ohm Macon, the government bota-
mist, was bitten by mosquitoes in April
Wheat grows there, between latitude 55
and SO, weighing 68 pounds to the bushel.
So yeu see we have got to run the Cana
dian Pacific through that country. It
may seem funny to you that we should
run a railroad right off toward Alaska
till we got almost to the Isitic Ocean,
but it is fact" II sa=s~
"Then this is all caused by the warm
Japanese Gulf Stream that blows up the
Pacific coast toward Alaska" ?" I asked.
"Yes, that is the cause. Don't your
warm Gulf Stream that comes up by New
foundland from Florida blow across to the
Great Britain, which lays in latitude So,
and make it as warm as Philadelphia,
situated in latitude 40? If the Gulf
stream makes England, in latitude So, as
warm as Philadel phia, why won't it make
British Columbia and Peace and Athabas-
ca rivers as warm too? Besides" contin-
ued the governor, I'VE have found that
the warm Gulf Stream pushes all the ice
bergs out through Behring Straits, through
the Arctic Sea eastward into Baffins Bay,
and they go cooling the air along the coast
Of Newfoundland and Maine. No ice
bergs along the Pacific coast. AS soon as
the new route is surveyed out and cara
van of surveyors started for Peace river
yesterday, we will commence grading the
Canadian Pacific track west. In about
five years we think we can take you Amer
leans almost to Alaska over our Canadian
Pacific road. 1t is 3S5 miles from Selkirk
to Thunder Bay. The road is completed
from Selkirk toward Thunder Bay ninety
miles, and from Thunder Bay west, toward
Selkirk, 120 miles. The 175 miles be-
tween, and which will finish the road so
as to give Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba
an outlet to Lake Superior, is being graded
now Three thousand five hundred men
are at work on it. 1t is to be finished in
the spring Of 1881. The steel rails for
this 175 miles now lay at Thunder Bay.
So, counting the track from Winnipeg to
St. Vincent, we have about 300 miles of
road built''