, 1883-12-27
Climate of Puget Sound.
lContinued from 1st page.l

While the Atlantic has its Gulf stream,
the Pacific has one as much grandeT as
the ocean through which it flows. This
Is called the Japan Current" 1t takes
its rise in the Indian Ocean moving
northward along the eastern shore OF
Asia, as the Atlantic Gulf Stream hugs
the American shore, until it strikes upon
the Aleutian Islands and the Alaskan
Peninsula. Here it is divided. One por-
ton moves northward through BehTing
Sea and Straits, eastward through the
Arctic Ocean, southwark through Baffins
Bay and Davis Straits, and still south
ward along our Atlantic Coast, giving the
cold northerly and easterly winds. This
accounts for the good fish and the vast
number of icebergs in the Northern At
lantic. The Japan Current flowing from
the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean and
thence INTO the Atlantic carries all ice
bergs with it. The other and much
larger position of the Japan Current is
bent southwark by the e'eyated bed of
BehrinS Sea and the Alaskan Peninsula
and flows along the western coast of
America Us an off shore current until it
stIikes upon Cape Mendocino, in North
ern California, where a portion turns
again northward as an in-shOre eddy,
ward, until by its greater specific gravity
it sinks beneath the surface and Is lost.
These currents are evidenced by the ex-
perienced of navigators- Vessels laden
with lumber on Puget Sound and bound
for San Francisco and other parts of the
world sometimes encounter gales and
nave to be relieved of their deck loads.
If this occurs within fifty or sixty miles
| of shore the lumber floats northward to-
ward Alaska, but if at distance of one
hundred miles Or more 1T floats south
wardly towards Cape Mendocino and
California. This Japan Current does
not part with all its warmth during its
entire circuit of many thousand miles.
| The volume of water in motion is so wide
and deep that often having parted with
several degrees of its heat along its more
northerly course it scarcely varies two
| degrees from Queen Charlotte Island TO
| San Francisco, distance of more than
| one thousand miles. Nor does the sum-
| mer elevate or the winter lower its tenn
| perature TO greater degree. ObseTya-
uOrs show that % deg. in winter and %
| deg. IN summer are Its average tempcTa-
| lure. Perhaps no other portion of the
Pacific Coast is influenced to the same
| extent In its climatic conditions by the
l
ing the waters of Puget Sound. This
interior body of tide water extending
inland nearly two hundred miles, having
lfteen hundred miles of shore line, GOV
ering at least two thousand square miles
of surface, of great depth, and ramifieC
by bays, channels and inlets III every
direction, has an average tidal rise anC
fail of about twelve feet, the extremes
being eight and twenty-five.
Calculating the area of the Sound !
will be found that fifty million cubi'
yards of water are poured into and GU
of 1t every day by the tide. In midsum
mcr when the other conditions wOull
produce a temperature OF 80 deg. thl
vast body OF water at 81 deg. is pOure
in daily, and being IS deg. colder tha1
the surrounding atmosphere, at once al
serbs portion of the surplus heat, an
thus aids the cool northwest bTeezes
keeping the summer average down to
deg. In winter the same volume of wats
at % deg. parts with its surplus calorl
whent yer the atmospheric temperatuT
r is below that figure, and thus aids tn