Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-22
SUB-TROP|CS SEEN
IN ICE MOVEMENTS
British Columbia Climate
Warmer as Glacial
Bodies Recede.
Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
VICTORIA. British Columbia, Oc-
tober % (N.A.N.A.) A sub-tropical
North Pacific Coast, with an entirely
new range of sea life in its adjacent
waters, an evolution in its vegetation
and a virgin terrain opened to man.
kind by the recession OF age-old
glaciers, is vi5ualized here as result Of
recent scientific observations. 1t is
thought the North American ice cap is
being driven back from the sea by
warmer winds and that a milder climate
will follow upon the diversion of heat
carrying ocean currents.
Such a metamcrphosis in the climate
and conditions Of the coast northWard
from the. Straits Of Juan de Fuca Is
brought within the realm Of possibility
by events recorded within the past
decade and particularly since the great
Japanese earthquake of 1928. This
monumental seismic disturbance and
some smaller but frequent commissions
of the floor of the Pacific Ocean since
that time, it is argued, have caused a
revolution in the flow of ocean currents
that wash the shores of the British
CoIup1hian coast
Sea Life Indicates Flow.
Appearance within the past month
CT enormous leatherback turtles off
Nootka, on the west coast of Vancouver
Island as well as Saury fish and
species of Portuguese man-of-war,
seopical jelly fish, indicate the north
ward flow of a new current from the
coast of Lower California.
While type of Portuguese man-of-
war was first observed off British CO.
lumbia shores in 1927, this Summer
they were abundantly in evidence. DR..
j. L. Hart. in charge of the Canadian
Biological Station at Departure Bay, in
the absence of DR.. w. A. Clemens, the
Superintendent, said that while the
iellyfish that have invaded British Co
lumbia waters from the south are not
the true form of marine life known as
the Portuguese man-of-War," they are
of the same species, although smaller.
They are common only in Southern
waters, he said, and their appearance
in this locality would appear to indi-
cate some important alteration OF
ocean currents.
DR.. Hart also referred to the catch
ing of saury off Port Hardy, Queen
Charlotte Sound, as a further evidence
of a revolution in the ordinary flow of
the ocean streams. This fish is ordi-
narily found off the coast of Southern
California.
Disturbances Move Currents.
F.. Napier Denison, superintendent of
the Dominion government meteorolog-
ical observatory, at Gonzales Hill, OBJ
served that there were undoubted evil
dences of great changes in Pacific seis-
mographic records dating from the
japanese earthquake. Such disturb
ances, he said, were bound to affect
ocean currents. One upheaval off the
Alaskan coast in 1899 raised the eleva-
ton of the sea floor 40 feet.
There had been a steady increase in
the mildness of the climate of the
British Columbia coast, Mr.. Denison
said, but this might be due to the rev.
olution of climatic cycles. Only time
can confirm this.
Another coastal occurrence that
caused comment this year was the fire.
uuent finding of Japanese fishing floats
of glass along the West Coast.
Two turtles captured off Nootka this
Fall were prodigious in size, weighing
1900 and 1,400 pounds. The larger one
was 8 feet in length with a width of 4
feet across the shell.
The f1otsam found this year is indie
alive of a more direct flow of the
japanese current, to which the mild
ness of the coast climate always has
been attributed The suggestion has
been made that the main japanese
stream has been divided as result OF
seismic disturbances and, while the
main now continues along the NOTIIl-
ern Coast, a secondary current is TAX
ing a more southerly direction to this
coast, and merges with the new stream
from the south, which brings with 1t
the sub-tropical sea life.
That the vagaries of warm ocean
currents have played a remarkable part
in changing the climatic conditions and
terrain of the North Pacific Coast is
to be found in the testimony of early
discoveries Capt. Vancouver, when he
visited the North Coast 1873 years ago,
found the ice at Glacier Inlet reached
to the salt water. Since that time it
has receded to such a remarkable de-
gree that Canada now has port IN
the Alaskan Peninsula.
When the boundary line was estab-
lished only a few years ago, the ice
pack still barred the Yukon from the
sea, but with the rapid recession of the
glacier, there has been uncovered ter
rain that gives to Canada mile or SO
of land that some day may be utilized
as the point of division between the
Yukon and Alaska.
copyright. 1881 by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Incl