CLIMATE AND SOIL. The difficulty which meets one at the outset who attempts a brief generali zation of Canada in env of its broader aspects is well stated by one of the latest essayists in this direction. "To characterize in a few lines," he re marks, "a country covering more than half the continent of North America, and reaching from the latitude of Constantinople to the North Pole: a country whose circuitous coast line on the Atlantic measures 10,000 miles, and whose western shore upon the Pacific, studded with islands and indented by secure harbors and deep inlet,, attains almost an equal length; a coun try when maize and peaches are staple crops, and where vegetation fades out upon the deso late and melaneholy shores of the Arctic ore:In to characterize sneh a country by a few general phrases is evidently impossible. If we look at the eastern portion alone, we see the greatest forest region in the world. if we consider the central portion, we are regarding the great prairie country: but if we cross the passes into the Pacific Province, we enter upon that of mountains' compared with which the most moun tainous country in Europe is of limited extent." In the northeastern region, the 'Hudson Bay Country,' the characteristics are Arctic or sub Aretic—a brief, warm summer and a long, cold winter, with much fog at all seasons on the ice bound coast. The current of cold water flowing down that coast past Greenland keeps the en trance to Hudson Bay frozen nearly two-thirds of the year, and often packs ice along the coast of Labrador so persistently as to make it inaccessible until midsummer; while the region of the Gulf of Newfoundland abounds in fog, and the air of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is surprisingly cool, with much rain and snow. In the northern interior dry and severe cold prevails over half of the year, the mercury, even as far south as Manitoba. frequently dropping to 50 degrees below zero of the Fahrenheit scale. The climate of the Saint Lawrence Valley, however, is excellent—cold, dry, and bracing, with much snow and occasional severe cold in winter, and in summer heat without much moisture, but usu ally an abundance of rain for crops, which are also nourished by the moisture given to the ground by the plentiful In the Maritime Provinces the neighborhood of the ocean modifies the extremes both of winter cold and summer heat, but causes more rain and fog. As for soil, north of the Laurentian Hills. and through the Hudson Bay and Labrador regions, it is scanty, and little except garden vegetables can be grown, because of the liability to summer frosts. In the valley of the Saint Lawrence, however, a belt of alluvial lowland near the river is extremely fer tile; and the whole of southern Ontario. by rea son of its moderate climate and varied soils, largely the result of glacial deposits, is exceed ingly well adapted to agriculture in all its phases. and to the raising of all the hardier fruits. The grain crops and apples of Ontario are famous. There is little space among the rocky hills of northern Ontario for agriculture, and the winters are rather too severe north and west of Lake Superior; but when the plains of Manitoba are reaclied. highly favorable conditions for agriculture are again encountered. The soil of the Red River Valley, including the valleys of the Assiniboine and Souris (Mouse), is a deep black prairie loam of the highest fertility. The same may be said of the whole plains region, even on the high western steppes, where only water is needed to insure great productivity, and of all the valleys of British Columbia and its coast.
The climate of the more southerly, habitable part of the Canadian Northwest is much more favorable to life than one would suppose from a knowledge of its latitude merely. The isotherm of (15' F. mean summer heat, which is that of the St. Lawrence Valley at Quebec, curves north ward along the smith shore of Lake Superior and through Manitoba and Assiniboia to north ern Alberta. This increase of warmth west ward and northward, as the mountains are approached, is due to the effect of the mountains upon the prevailing air-currents. There, as else where, the usual winds blow from the west, and come to the coast expanded and saturated with wa nut h and after flowing for thousands of toile. across the Pacific, whose are twenty degrees warmer than are those of the North Atlantic. Vancouver Island and the coast of British Cohnubia have it climate. in sequenee, much like that of the south of England, but warmer, and even more moist. Flowers bloom in the gardens the year round, and fruit reaches the utmost excellence. Warmth and rainfall are derived from the latent heat, and ab sorb moisture set free by condensation of the oceanic air against the high and cold Coast Range. Bobbed of only a portion of their bur
den. but lifted and rarefied by elevation. the inds sweep across the interim valley of British Columbia and strike against the snowy Rockies, to deposit more rain or snow. but rain so rarely falls on the intervening Fraser-Thompson Valley that agriculture there must depend upon irriga tion. The reason for this is that the ever ascending heat of the sun-baked plains buoys up the higher ;fir-currents and lifts them straight aces to the Selkirks and Eastern llockies, to AN hose vast snow-fields they give almost all of the moisture yet remaining. These 'nice warm winds are now, however. cool winds. In.ea use they have become dry and rarefied. The eastern side of the Canadian Rocky Mountains has little snow, and is sparsely provided with trees, as com pared with its western side, or with the roast ranges. aml the general temperature is cooler; yet the eastern foothills of the Rockies have a milder climate and earlier spring than the western. or than is enjoyed by lanitoba. This is due to the phenomenon called the Chinook, which is a wind caused by the rarefied air rushing down from the simunits, necessarily increasing in density by compression as it strikes the level, absorbing moisture and giving up its latent heat to the extent of about 23' F. 'hie ehinook is not a wind that has come warm from the Pacific, but is of local origin. In summer the same breeze seems cool in comparison with the fierce radia tion. of the baked plains. but it is equally a chi nook. (See ('iatxooK WIND.) The genial influ ence of this warm, dry wind is seen in winter in the quick evaporation of the snow, and the con sequent exposure of pasturage to stock. and in producing early conditions of spring. to Peace River the winters are milder than those of .Mani toba or Ontario, and everything that will grow near Toronto will ripen at Dunregan, 13 degrees, of latitude north of it—the same latitude as the middle of Labrador! Its influence wanes with dis tance eastward, however, and Manitoba is sub ject to the extremes of its posit hm at a high lati tude in the centre of a continent, being subject to excessive noonday heats in summer and exces sive cold in winter. with the nights always e001, and the autumnal frosts liable to begin in August. In the extreme north a rigorous Arctic climate prevails, with the wiutor 0'111110ra titre deSeeIldillg to —75". The summers are. however, still fa \ orable to plant growth. The whole Northwest, however, is healthful in :t high degree: EtonA. The flora of all the northern part of Canada is A retie and sub-Arct iv, and this charm. terizes the scanty growth in the eastern part all the way down to the height of land which sepa rates Labrador and the basin of Hudson Bay from the Saint Lawrence Valley. A great space between Hudson Bay and the Arctic shores is al most a desert, and has been known from the ear liest dines as the Barren flround or Tundra, yielding hardly anything more than mosses, liehens, and a few willows and hardy herbs. The flora of the Saint Lawrence Valley and of the Nlaritime Provinces differs little from that of the northeastern United States, the whole of that space having been originally vovered with mixed forests of large and valuable trees, both coniferous and hard wood. The western plains are comparatively treeless as far 114)1111 as the Saskatchewan. yet are covered with prai rie grasses :itd herbage, which thin out toward the higher and drier steppes westward. where the plains are covered with the bunch-grasses which once supported enormous herds of buf faloes and antelopes, and now furnish suste nance for a rich stoel:-raising region. North of the Saskatchewan a broad belt of rather small and sparse trees extends from fludson Bay to Croat Slave Lake and the Rocky Alountains chiefly spruce, tamarack, and poplar. The dry western slopes :Ind valleys of the blocky tains are thinly covered with woods. mainly pine; but the forest increases in density and the trees in size as one proceeds we-4 toward the region of greater rainfall; and after passing the treeless Fraser Thompson Valley, the coast and ('specially their western slopes, are found covered with the dense forest; of mighty evergreen trees that characterize the northwest coast of all North America. The principal trees are the spruce. or 'I )regon pine' (I'seudotsu ga); the white cedar (7Viaja) ; a heinlocl; (nit ga Merit nsiu , and Engleniaim's spruce Ii'ivea Englemunni). 'These coast forests are inconceiva bly dense and sombre, and their average height on the lowlands is not less than 20fl feet. while the Douglas spruces often exceed 300 feet, and the cedars are hardly less tall.