"The greatest continuous cold occurred in February, when the daily mean for five consecutive days was 47 degrees below zero. The weather moderated slightly about the first of March, but the temperature still remained below the freezing point. Generally cloudy weather prevailed, there being but three consecutive days in any month with clear weather during the whole winter. Snow fell on about one-third of the days in winter, and a less number in the early spring and late fall months. In the interior, the winter sets in as early as September, when snow storms may be expected in the mountains and passes. Headway during one of these storms is impossible, and the traveler who is overtaken in one of them is indeed fortunate if he escapes with his life. Snow storms of great severity may occur in any month from September to May, inclusive."
The changes of temperature from winter to summer are rapid, owing to the great increase in the length of the day. In May the sun rises at about 3 a.m. and sets about 9 p.m. In June it rises about 1:30 in the morning and sets at 10:30 p.m., giving about twenty hours of daylight, and diffuse twilight the remainder of the time.
Notwithstanding the marked variations in the climate Alaska is essentially a healthy country. The only prevailing diseases are those of a bronchial nature, and in most cases these troubles can be directly traced to imprudent exposure.
The snow of the interior partakes much of the character of frost, sifting slowly down in intensely cold weather until it lies several inches deep, light and fluffy; but at times, in warm weather, it thaws and settles into a hard crust, affording excellent surface for sledding.
The great precipitation and humidity of the atmosphere in Southern Alaska cause the entire coast region to be clothed in a mantle of perennial green. Vegetation is dense and the forests magnificent. The soil is rich, though in the heavily timbered region it is shallow, and from the most eastern point of the territory to Kodiak root crops are easily grown.
The numerous islands that skirt the coast of Alaska, the great plains of the interior, intersected by deep rivers, gigantic snow-crowned mountains, the active volcanoes and the mighty ice fields, with many other singular, beautiful and awe-inspiring gifts of nature combine to make the country of the new gold fields one of notable grandeur and wonder.
The great rivers of the interior drain immense valleys, with mountain ranges everywhere visible. Lakes are abundant, often surrounded by tundra or swamps, very frequently impenetrable, covered with brush, rank grasses, and other vegetation. After the interior is reached—and by this is meant after the coast mountains are crossed, in many places only twenty or thirty miles from the coast—the soft earth and luxuriant vegetation of the coast country give place to frozen ground, and lichens and mosses, on the mountain sides and in the valleys. But though the vast plains of the interior are within the grasp of the ice king for eight months of the year, with the advent of the long days of summer, water runs, flowers bloom, and grasses spring into life as if by magic, and their growth is at once luxuriant and rapid, even though in many places the soil is never thawed beyond a few inches below the surface. In the far north, at St. Michael, and at Point Barrow, wells have been dug through sixty feet of solid ice, and the same condition has been noted on the Yukon, at Forty-Mile.
The effect of the wide climatic ranges is manifest in the fauna and flora of the territory. The former corresponds very closely to the sub-arctic type; the latter presents a variety of brilliance and sobriety at once delightful and astonishing. The animals belong largely to the fur-bearing species, though natives of more temperate regions survive and even thrive with proper care.