THE RED RIVER COUNTRY.
Monday morning saw us on our way northward,--down the valley of the Red
River.
It was exhilarating to gallop over the level prairies, inhaling the
fresh air, our horses brushing the dew from the grass, and to see
flocks of plump prairie chickens rise in the air and whirr away,--to
mark where they settled, and then to start them again and bring them
down, one by one, with a double-barrelled shot-gun. Did we not think of
the stews and roasts we would have at night?
For a dozen years or more every school-boy has seen upon his map the
town of Breckenbridge, located on the Red River of the North. It is off
from the travelled road. The town, as one of our teamsters informed us,
"has gone up." It originally consisted of two houses and a saw-mill,
but the Sioux Indians swooped down upon it in 1862, and burned the
whole place. A few logs, the charred remains of timbers, and tall
fire-weeds alone mark the spot.
Riding on, we reached Fort Abercrombie at noon. It is situated in
Dakota, on the west bank of the Red River, which we crossed by
a rope ferry. It is a resting-place for the thousands of teams
passing between St. Cloud and Fort Garry, and other places in the
far Northwest. The place is of no particular account except as a
distributing point for government supplies for forts farther on, and
the advancement of civilization will soon enable the War Department to
break up the establishment.
The river is fringed with timber. We ride beneath stately oaks growing
upon the bottom-lands, and notice upon the trees the high-water marks
of former years. The stream is very winding, and when the spring rains
come on the rise is as great, though not usually so rapid, as in the
Merrimac and Connecticut, and other rivers of the East.
The valley of the Red River is not such as we are accustomed to see in
the East, bounded by hills or mountains, but a level plain.
When the sky is clear and the air serene, we can catch far away in
the east the faint outline of the Leaf Hills, composing the low ridge
between the Red River and the Mississippi, but westward there is
nothing to bound the sight. The dead level reaches on and on to the
rolling prairies of the Upper Missouri.
The eye rests only upon the magnificent carpet, bright with wild roses
and petunias, lilies and harebells, which Nature has unrolled upon the
floor of this gorgeous palace.
I had been slow to believe all that had been told in regard to the
genial climate of the Northwest, but through the courtesy of the
commandant of the Fort, General Hunt, was permitted to see the
meteorological records kept at the post.
The summer of 1868 was excessively warm in the Western, Middle, and
Atlantic States. Here, on one day in July, the mercury rose to ninety
degrees, Fahrenheit, but the mean temperature for the month was
seventy-nine. In August the highest temperature was eighty-eight, the
lowest fifty, the mean sixty-nine. In September the highest temperature
was seventy-four, the mean forty-seven. A slight frost occurred on
the night of the 16th, and a hard one on the last day of the month.
In October a few flakes of snow fell on the 27th. In November there
were a few inches of snow. Toward the close of December, on one day,
the mercury reached twenty-seven below zero. On the 30th of January
it dropped to thirty below. During this month there were four days
on which snow fell, and in February there were ten snowy days. The
greatest depth of snow during the winter was about eighteen inches,
furnishing uninterrupted sleighing from December to March.
On the 23d of March wild geese and ducks appeared, winging their way to
Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay. The spring opened early in April.
There are no farms as yet in the valley,--the few settlers cultivating
only small patches of land.
I have thought of this section of country as being almost up to the
arctic circle, and can only disabuse my mind by comparing it with
other localities in the same latitude. St. Paul is in the latitude of
Bordeaux, in the grape-growing district of Southern France. Here at
Fort Abercrombie we are at least one hundred and fifty miles farther
south than the world's gayest capital, Paris.
It is not likely that Northern Minnesota will ever become a
wine-producing country, though wild grapes are found along the streams,
and the people of St. Paul and Minneapolis will show us thrifty vines
in their gardens, laden with heavy clusters.
Minnesota is a wheat-growing region, climate and soil are alike
favorable to its production.
On the east bank of the Red River we see a field owned by Mr. McAuley,
who keeps a store and sells boots, pipes, tobacco, powder, shot, and
all kinds of supplies needed by hunters and frontiersmen. He sowed his
wheat this year (1869) on the 5th of May, and it is now, on the 19th of
July, heading out. "I had forty-five bushels to the acre last year," he
says, "and the present crop will be equally good."
[Illustration: RED RIVER VALLEY.]
This Red River Valley throughout its length and breadth is very
fertile. Here are twenty thousand square miles of land,--an area as
large as Vermont and New Hampshire combined,--unsurpassed for richness.
The construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the St. Paul and
Pacific, both of which are to reach this valley within a few months,
will make these lands virtually as near market as the farms of Central
or Western Illinois. From the Red River to Duluth the distance is 210
miles in a direct line. It is 187 miles from Chicago to Springfield,
Illinois; so that when the Northern Pacific Railroad is constructed to
this point, Mr. McAuley will be just as near Boston or New York as the
farmers who live in the vicinity of the capital of Illinois; for grain
can be taken from Duluth to Buffalo, Oswego, or Ogdensburg as cheaply
as from Chicago. The richness of the lands, the supply of timber on the
Red River and all its branches, with the opening of the two lines of
railway, will give a rapid settlement to this paradise of the Northwest.
Professor Hind, of Toronto, who was sent out by the Canadian government
to explore the British Possessions northwest of Lake Superior, in his
report says: "Of the valley of the Red River I find it impossible to
speak in any other terms than those which may express astonishment and
admiration. I entirely concur in the brief but expressive description
given me by an English settler on the Assinniboine, that the valley
of the Red River, including a large portion belonging to its great
affluents, is a paradise of fertility."
In Mr. McAuley's garden we see corn in the spindle. The broad leaves
wear as rich a green as if fertilized with the best Peruvian guano;
and no wonder, for the soil is a deep black loam, and as mellow as an
ash-heap. His peas were sown the 2d of June, and they are already large
enough for the table! He will have an abundant supply of cucumbers by
the first of August. They were not started under glass, but the dry
seeds were dropped in the hills the same day he planted his peas,--the
2d of June.
Vegetation advances with great rapidity. Mr. McAuley says that
vegetables and grains come to maturity ten or fifteen days earlier here
than at Manchester, New Hampshire, where he once resided.
General Pope was formerly stationed at Fort Abercrombie; and in his
report upon the resources of the country and its climatology, says that
the wheat, upon an average, is five pounds per bushel heavier than that
grown in Illinois or the Middle States.
We saw yesterday a gentleman and lady who live at Fort Garry, and who
call themselves "Winnipeggers." They were born in Scotland, and had
been home to Old Scotia to see their friends.
"How do you like Winnipeg?" I asked.
"There is no finer country in the world," he replied.
"Do you not have cold winters?"
"Not remarkably so. We have a few cold days, but the air is usually
clear and still on such days, and we do not mind the cold. If we only
had a railroad, it would be the finest place in the world to live in."
We wonder at his enthusiasm over a country which we have thought of as
being almost, if not quite, out of the world, while he doubtless looks
with pity upon us who are content to remain in such a cooped-up place
as the East.
Most of us, unless we have become nomads, think that there are no
garden patches so attractive as our own, and we wonder how other people
can be willing to live so far off.
This Winnipeg gentleman says that the winters are no more severe at
Fort Garry than at St. Paul, and that the spring opens quite as early.
The temperature for the year at Fort Garry is much like that of
Montreal, as will be seen by the following comparison:--
Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter.
° ° ° °
Montreal, 43 70 49 17
Fort Garry, 36 68 48 7
This shows the mean temperatures for the three months of each season.
Though the mercury is ten degrees lower at Fort Garry in the winter
than at Montreal, there is less wind, fewer raw days, much less snow,
and, taken all in all, the climate is more agreeable.
Bidding good by to the courteous commander of the fort, who supplies
that portion of our party going to the Missouri with an escort, we
gallop on through this "Paradise," starting flocks of plovers from the
waving grass, and bringing down, now and then, a prairie chicken.
Far away, on the verge of the horizon, we can see our wagons,--mere
specks.
What a place for building a railway! Not a hillock nor a hollow, not
a curve or loss of gradient; timber enough on the river for ties. And
when built, what a place to let on steam! The engineer may draw his
throttle-valve and give the piston full head. Here will be the place to
see what iron, steel, and steam can do.
We pitch our tents for the night in the suburbs of Burlington, not far
from the hotel and post-office. The hotel, which just now is the only
building in town, is built of logs. It is not very spacious inside, but
it has all the universe outside!
Once a week the mail-carrier passes from Fort Abercrombie to Pembina,
and as there are a half-dozen pioneers and half-breeds within
a radius of thirty miles of Burlington, a post-office has been
established here, which is kept in a shed adjoining the hotel.
The postmaster gives us a cordial greeting. It is a pleasure to hear
this bluff but wide-awake German say, "O, I have been acquainted with
you for a long while. I followed you through the war and around the
world."
From first to last, in letters from the battle-field, from the various
countries of the world, and in these notes of travel, it has ever
been my aim to write for the comprehension of the people; and such
spontaneous and uncalled-for commendation of my efforts out here upon
the prairies was more grateful than many a well-meant paragraph from
the public press.
While pitching our tents, a flock of pigeons flew past, and down in the
woods along the bank of the river we could hear their cooing. Those
who had shot-guns went to the hunt; while some of us tried the river
for fish, but returned luckless. The supper was good enough, however,
without trout or pickerel. Who can ask for anything better than prairie
chicken, plover, duck, pork, and pigeons?
Then, when hunger is appeased, we sit around the camp-fire and think of
the future of this paradise. Near by is another camp-fire.
I see by its glimmering light a stalwart man with shaggy beard and a
slouched hat. The emigrant's wife sits on the other side of the fire,
and by its light I see that she wears a faded linsey-woolsey dress,
that her hair is uncombed, and that she has not given much attention
to her toilet. Two frowzy-headed children, a boy and a girl, are
romping in the grass. The worldly effects of this family are in that
canvas-covered ox-wagon, with a chicken-coop at the hinder part, and a
tin kettle dangling beneath the axle. This emigrant has come from Iowa.
He is moving into this valley "to take up a claim." That is, he is
going to select a piece of choice land under the Homestead Act, build a
cabin, and "make a break in the per-ra-ry," he says.
He will be followed by others. The tide is setting in rapidly, and by
the time the railway company are ready to carry freight there will be
population enough here to support the road.
We have an early start in the morning. Our route is along a highway,
upon which there is more travel than upon many of the old turnpikes of
New England for Winnipeg, and the Hudson Bay posts receive all their
supplies over this road.
At our noonday halt we fall in with Father Genin, a French Catholic
priest, who lives on the bank of the river in a log-hut. He comes
out to see us, wearing a long black bombazine priestly gown, and
low-crowned hat. He is in the prime of life, was educated at Paris,
came to Quebec, and is assigned to the Northwest. He has sailed over
Lake Winnipeg, and paddled his canoe on the Saskatchawan and Athabasca.
"My parish," he says, "reaches from St. Paul to the Rocky Mountains."
He speaks in glowing terms of the country up "in the Northwest,"--as if
we, who are now sixteen hundred miles from Boston, had not reached the
Northwest!
Our talk with Father Genin, and his enthusiastic description of the
Saskatchawan Valley, has set us to thinking of this region, to which
the United States once held claim, and which might now have been a part
of our domain if it had not been for the pusillanimity of President
Polk.
Mackenzie was the first European who gave to the world an account
of the country lying between us and the Arctic Sea. He was in this
valley in 1789, and was charmed with it. He made his way down to
Lake Winnipeg, thence up the Saskatchawan to Athabasca Lake. At the
carrying-place between the Saskatchawan and Athabasca rivers, at
Portage la Loche, he discovered springs of petroleum, which are thus
described:--
"Twenty-five miles from the fork are some bituminous springs, into
which a pole may be inserted without the least resistance. The bitumen
is in a fluid state, and when mixed with resin is used to gum the
canoes. In its heated state it emits a smell like sea-coal. The
banks of Slave River, which are elevated, discover veins of the same
bituminous quality."[1]
[Footnote 1: General History of the Fur-Trade, p. 87.]
His winter quarters were near Lake Athabasca, at Fort Chippewayan, more
than thirteen hundred miles northwest from Chicago. He thus writes in
regard to the country:--
"In the fall of 1787, when I first arrived at Athabasca, Mr. Pond was
settled on the bank of the Elk River, where he remained three years,
and had as fine a kitchen-garden as I ever saw in Canada" (p. 127).
Of the climate in winter he says that the beginning was cold, and about
one foot of snow fell. The last week in December and the first week in
January were marked by warm southwest breezes, which dissolved all the
snow. Wild geese appeared on the 13th of March; and on the 5th of April
the snow had entirely disappeared. On the 20th he wrote:--
"The trees are budding, and many plants are in blossom" (p. 150).
Mackenzie left the "Old Establishment," as one of the posts of the
Hudson Bay Company was called, on the Peace River, in the month of May,
for the Rocky Mountains. He followed the stream through the gap of the
mountains, passed to the head-waters of Fraser River, and descended
that stream to the Pacific. He thus describes the country along the
Peace River:--
"This magnificent theatre of nature has all the decorations which the
trees and animals can afford it. Groves of poplars in every shape
vary the scene, and their intervales are relieved with vast herds of
elk and buffaloes,--the former choosing the steeps and uplands, the
latter preferring the plains. The whole country displayed an exuberant
verdure; the trees that bear blossoms were advancing fast to that
delightful appearance, and the velvet rind of their branches reflecting
the oblique rays of a rising or setting sun added a splendid gayety to
the scene which no expressions of mine are qualified to describe" (p.
154).
This was in latitude 55° 17', about fourteen hundred miles from St.
Paul.
The next traveller who enlightened the world upon this region was Mr.
Harman, a native of Vergennes, Vermont, who became connected with the
Northwest Fur Company, and passed seventeen years in British America.
He reached Lake Winnipeg in 1800, and his first winter was passed west
of the lake. Under date of January 5th we have this record in his
journal:--
"Beautiful weather. Saw in different herds at least a thousand
buffaloes grazing" (p. 68).
"_February 17th._--We have now about a foot and a half of snow on the
ground. This morning one of our people killed a buffalo on the prairie
opposite the fort" (p. 73).
"_March 14th._--The greater part of the snow is dissolved."[2]
[Footnote 2: On the 16th of March, 1870, while these notes
were under review, the streets of Boston were deep with snow,
and twenty-four trains were blockaded on the Boston and Albany
Railroad between Springfield and Albany.]
On the 6th of April Mr. Harman writes: "I have taken a ride on
horseback to a place where our people are making sugar. My path led me
over a small prairie, and through a wood, where I saw a great variety
of birds that were straining their tuneful throats as if to welcome the
return of another spring; small animals were running about, or skipping
from tree to tree, and at the same time were to be seen, swans,
bustards, ducks, etc. swimming about in the rivers and ponds. All these
things together rendered my ramble beautiful beyond description" (p.
75).
During the month of April there were two snow-storms, but the snow
disappeared nearly as fast as it fell.
One winter was passed by Mr. Harman in the country beyond Lake
Athabasca, on the Athabasca River, where he says the snow during the
winter "was at no time more than two feet and a half deep" (p. 174).
On May 6th he writes: "We have planted our potatoes and sowed most of
our garden-seeds" (p. 178).
"_June 2d._--The seeds which we sowed in the garden have sprung up and
grown remarkably well. The present prospect is that strawberries, red
raspberries, shad-berries, cherries, etc. will be abundant this season."
"_July 21st._--We have cut down our barley, and I think it is the
finest that I ever saw in any country. The soil on the points of land
along this river is excellent" (p. 181).
"_October 3d._--We have taken our potatoes out of the ground, and
find that nine bushels which we planted on the 10th of May last have
produced a little more than one hundred and fifty bushels. The other
vegetables in our garden have yielded an increase much in the same
proportion, which is sufficient proof that the soil of the points of
land along this river is good. Indeed, I am of opinion that wheat, rye,
barley, oats, peas, etc. would grow well in the plains around us" (p.
186).
He passed several winters at the head-waters of Peace River, in the
Rocky Mountains. In his journal we have these records:--
"_May 7th._--The weather is very fine, and vegetation is far advanced
for the season. Swans and ducks are numerous in the lakes and rivers."
"_May 22d._--Planted potatoes and sowed garden-seeds."
"_October 3rd._--We have taken our vegetables out of the ground. We
have forty-one bushels of potatoes, the produce of one bushel planted
last spring. Our turnips, barley, etc. have produced well" (p. 257).
In 1814 he writes under date of September 3d: "A few days since we
cut down our barley. The five quarts which I sowed on the 1st of May
have yielded as many bushels. One acre of ground, producing in the
same proportion, would yield eighty-four bushels. This is sufficient
proof that the soil in many places in this quarter is favorable to
agriculture" (p. 267).
Sir John Richardson, who explored the arctic regions by this route,
says: "Wheat is raised with profit at Fort Liard, lat. 60° 5' N.,
lon. 122° 31' W., and four or five hundred feet above the sea. This
locality, however, being in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, is
subject to summer frosts, and the grain does not ripen every year,
though in favorable seasons it gives a good return."
In 1857, Captain Palliser, of the Royal Engineers, was sent out by the
English government to explore the region between Lake Superior and
the Pacific, looking towards the construction of a railroad across
the continent, through the British Possessions. His report to the
government is published in the Blue-Book.
Speaking of the country along the Assinniboine, he says: "The
Assinniboine has a course of nearly three hundred miles; lies wholly
within a fertile and partially wooded country. The lower part of the
valley for seventy miles, before it joins the Red River, affords land
of surpassing richness and fertility" (p. 9).
Of the South Saskatchawan, he says that "it flows through a
thick-wooded country" (p. 10).
The natural features of the north branch of that river are set forth in
glowing language:--
"The richness of the natural pasture in many places on the North
Saskatchawan and its tributary, Battle River, can hardly be
exaggerated. Its value does not consist in its long rank grasses or in
its great quantity, but from its fine quality, comprising nutritious
species of grasses, along with natural vetches in great variety, which
remain throughout the winter juicy and fit for the nourishment of stock.
"Almost anywhere along the Saskatchawan a sufficiency of good soil is
everywhere to be found, fit for all purposes, both for pasture and
tillage, extending towards the thick-wooded hills, and also to be found
in the region of the lakes, between Forts Pitt and Edmonton. In almost
every direction around Edmonton the land is fine, excepting only the
hilly country at the higher level, such as the Beacon Hills; even there
there is nothing like sterility, only the surface is too much broken
to be occupied while more level country can be obtained" (p. 10).
Going up the Saskatchawan he discovered beds of coal, which are thus
described:--
"In the upper part of the Saskatchawan country, coal of fine quality
occurs abundantly, and may hereafter be very useful. It is quite fit to
be employed in the smelting of iron from the ore of that metal, which
occurs in large quantities in the same strata" (p. 11).
Two hundred miles north of this coal deposit, Mackenzie discovered the
springs of petroleum and coal strata along the banks of the streams.
Harman saw the same.
Palliser wintered on the Saskatchawan, and speaks thus of the climate:--
"The climate in winter is more rigorous than that of Red River, and
partial thaws occur long before the actual opening of spring. The
winter is much the same in duration, but the amount of snow that falls
rapidly decreases as we approach the mountains. The river generally
freezes about the 12th of November, and breaks up from the 17th to
the 20th of April. During the winter season of five months the means
of travelling and transport are greatly facilitated by the snow, the
ordinary depth of which is sufficient for the use of sleighs, without
at the same time being great enough to impede horses.
"The whole of this region of country would be valuable, not only for
agriculture, but also for mixed purposes of settlement. The whole
region is well wooded and watered, and enjoys a climate far preferable
to that of either Sweden or Norway. I have not only seen excellent
wheat, but Indian corn (which will not succeed in England or Ireland),
ripening on Mr. Pratt's farm at the Qui Appelle Lakes in 1857" (p. 11).
Father De Smet, a Catholic missionary, in 1845 crossed the Rocky
Mountains from British Columbia, eastward to the head-waters of the
south branch of the Saskatchawan, and passed along the eastern base of
the mountains to Edmonton. He characterizes the country as "an ocean of
prairies."
"The entire region," he says, "in the vicinity of the eastern chain of
the Rocky Mountains, serving as their base for thirty or sixty miles,
is extremely fertile, abounding in forests, plains, prairies, lakes,
streams, and mineral springs. The rivers and streams are innumerable,
and on every side offer situations favorable for the construction of
mills. The northern and southern branches of the Saskatchawan water the
district I have traversed for a distance of about three hundred miles.
Forests of pines, cypress, cedars, poplar and aspen trees, as well as
others of different kinds, occupy a large portion of it. The country
would be capable of supporting a large population, and the soil is
favorable for the production of wheat, barley, potatoes, and beans,
which grow here as well as in the more southern countries."
It is a region abundantly supplied with coal of the lignite formation.
Father Genin has a specimen of lignite taken from the banks of Maple
River, about seven miles from our camp. It is a small branch of the Red
River flowing from the west. If we were to travel northwest a little
more than one hundred miles, we should come to the Little Souris or
Mouse River, a branch of the Assinniboine, where we should find seams
of the same kind of coal. Continuing on to the Saskatchawan, we shall
find it appearing all along the river from Fort Edmonton to the Rocky
Mountains, a distance of between three and four hundred miles.
Dr. Hector, geologist to the exploring expedition under Captain
Palliser, thus describes the coal on Red Deer River, a branch of the
South Saskatchawan:--
"The lignite forms beds of great thickness, one group of seams
measuring twenty-five feet in thickness, of which twelve feet consist
of pure compact lignite. At one point the seam was on fire, and the
Indians say that for as long as they can remember the fire at this
place has not been extinguished, summer or winter" (p. 233).
Father De Smet passed down the river in 1845, and it was then on fire.
If we were to travel northward from the Red Deer to the Peace River,
we should find the same formation; and if we were to glide down the
Mackenzie towards the Arctic Sea, we should, according to the intrepid
voyager whose name it bears, find seams of coal along its banks.
Mr. Bourgeau, botanist to the Palliser Exploring Expedition, in a
letter addressed to Sir William Hooker, has the following remarks upon
the capabilities of the Northwest for supporting a dense population:--
"It remains for me to call the attention of the English government
to the advantages there would be in establishing agricultural
districts in the vast plains of Rupert's Land, and particularly in
the Saskatchawan, in the neighborhood of Fort Carlton. This district
is much better adapted to the culture of staple crops than one would
have been inclined to believe from this high latitude. In effect, the
few attempts at the culture of cereals already made in the vicinity of
the Hudson Bay Company's posts demonstrate by their success how easy
it would be to obtain products sufficiently large to remunerate the
efforts of the agriculturist. Then, in order to put the land under
cultivation, it would be necessary only to till the better portions
of the soil. The prairies offer natural pasturage as favorable for
the maintenance of numerous herds as if they had been artificially
created. The construction of houses for habitation and for pioneer
development would involve but little expense, because in many parts
of the country, independent of wood, one would find fitting stones
for building purposes, and it is easy to find clay for bricks.... The
vetches found here are as fitting for nourishment of cattle as the
clover of European pasturage. The abundance of buffaloes, and the
facility with which herds of horses and oxen increase, demonstrate that
it would be enough to shelter animals in winter, and to feed them in
the shelters with hay.... In the gardens of the Hudson Bay Company's
posts, beans, peas, and French beans have been successfully cultivated;
also cabbages, turnips, carrots, rhubarb, and currants" (p. 250).
The winters of the Northwest are wholly unlike those of the Eastern and
Middle States. The meteorologist of Palliser's Expedition says: "Along
the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains there is a narrow strip of
country in which there is never more than a few inches of snow on the
ground. About forty miles to the eastward, however, the fall begins to
be much greater, but during the winter rarely exceeds two feet. On the
prairies the snow evaporates rapidly, and, except in hollows where it
is drifted, never accumulates; but in the woods it is protected, and in
spring is often from three to four feet deep" (p. 268).
Captain Palliser and party travelled from post to post during the
winter without difficulty. In February, 1859, he travelled from
Edmonton to Lake St. Ann's. On two nights the mercury was frozen in the
bulb,--as it is not unfrequently at Franconia, New Hampshire. Exclusive
of those two cold nights, the mean of the temperature was seventeen. He
says: "This was a trip made during the coldest weather experienced in
the country. If proper precautions are taken, there is nothing merely
in extreme cold to stop travelling in the wooded country, but the
danger of freezing from exposure upon the open plains is so great that
they cannot be ventured on with safety during any part of the winter"
(p. 268).
The Wesleyan Missionary Society of England has a mission at Edmonton,
under the care of Rev. Thomas Woolsey. The following extracts from
his journal will show the progress of the winter and spring season in
1855:--
"Nov. 1. A little snow has fallen for the first time.
" 12. Swamps frozen over.
" 13. A little more snow.
" 17. Crossed river on the ice.
Dec. 2. The past week has been remarkably mild.
" 9. More snow.
1856. Jan. 8 to 11. More like spring than winter.
Jan. 13. Fine open weather.
" 17. Somewhat colder.
Feb. 14. Weather open.
" 16. Snow rapidly disappearing.
Mar. 11. More snow.
" 17. Firing pasture-grounds to-day.
" 18. Thunder-storm.
" 21. Ducks and geese returning.
" 30. More snow, but it is rapidly disappearing.
" 31. Snow quite gone.
April 7. Ploughing commenced.
" 28. First wheat sown."
The succeeding winter was more severe, and three feet of snow fell
during the season, but the spring opened quite as early as in 1856. The
comparative mildness of the winter climate of all this vast area of
the West and Northwest, at the head-waters of the Missouri, and in the
British dominions, as far north as latitude 70°, is in a great measure
due to the warm winds of the Pacific.
In the autumn of 1868 I crossed the Pacific, from Japan to San
Francisco, in the Pacific mail-steamer Colorado. Soon after leaving the
Bay of Yokohama we entered the Kuro-Siwo, or the Black Ocean River of
the Asiatic coast. This ocean current bears a remarkable resemblance to
the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic. Along the eastern shore of Japan the
water, like that along Virginia and the Carolinas, is very cold, but we
suddenly pass into the heated river, which, starting from the vicinity
of the Philippine Islands, laves the eastern shore of Formosa, and
rushes past the Bay of Yeddo at the rate of eighty miles per day. This
heated river strikes across the Northern Pacific to British Columbia
and Puget Sound, giving a genial climate nearly up to the Arctic
Circle. No icebergs are ever encountered in the North Pacific. The
influence of the Kuro-Siwo upon the Northwest is very much like that
which the Gulf Stream has upon England and Norway. It gives to Oregon,
Washington, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island winters so mild that
the people cannot lay in a supply of ice for the summer. Roses bloom
in the gardens throughout the year. So the water heated beneath the
tropics, off the eastern coast of Siam and north of Borneo, flows along
the shore of Japan up to the Aleutian Isles, imparting its heat to the
air, which, under the universal law, ascends when heated, and sweeps
over the Rocky Mountains, and tempers the climate east of them almost
to Hudson Bay.
So wonderfully arranged is this mighty machinery of nature, that
millions of the human race in coming years will rear their habitations
and enjoy the blessings of civilization in regions that otherwise would
be pathless solitudes.
In the meteorological register kept at Carlton House, in lat. 52° 51',
on the eastern limit of the Saskatchawan Plain, eleven hundred feet
above the sea, we find this entry: "At this place westerly winds bring
mild weather, and the easterly ones are attended by fog and snow."
By the following tabular statement we see at a glance the snow-fall at
various places in the United States. We give average depths for the
winter as set down in Blodget's climatology.
Oxford County, Maine 90 inches.
Dover, New Hampshire 68 "
Montreal, Canada 66 "
Burlington, Vermont 85 "
Worcester, Massachusetts 55 "
Cincinnati, Ohio 19 "
Burlington, Iowa 15 "
Beloit, Wisconsin 25 "
Fort Abercrombie, Dakota 12 "
From this testimony I am impelled to believe that the immense area
west of Lake Superior and south of the 60th parallel is as capable of
being settled as those portions of Russia, Sweden, and Norway south of
that degree, now swarming with people. That parallel passes through
St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Christiania, and the Shetland Isles on the
eastern hemisphere, Fort Liard and Central Alaska on the western.