Fig. 25.—Ice-palace erected in Montreal, Canada, during the winter of 1889.
The winter in the northeastern portion of the transition province may be said to be the most characteristic feature of the climate, as it is the one that is most pronounced and exceptional, when a comparison is made with other thickly peopled portions of the continent. The period of cold and snow each year is long, extending in general from November to March, and the coming of the flowers and birds in spring is frequently much delayed. The long cold winters have a decided influence on plant and animal life, and in a marked way modify the lives of men. In the northeastern portion of the United States and adjacent provinces of Canada various forms of sleighs are extensively used during the winters, and skating on the frozen lakes and streams and excursions on snow-shoes over the fields and through the forests are a popular and healthful exercise, while coasting and tobogganing—or to explain these terms to people living in regions where snow does not fall, the sliding down steep snow- or ice-covered slopes on sleds or flat-bottomed toboggans—are highly enjoyable sports indulged in by children and grown people alike. In certain cities, notably Montreal and Quebec, what are termed ice-palaces (Fig. 25) are built of blocks of ice and are utilized for winter carnivals.
The summers throughout the transition province are hot, with little rain in the western portion, but refreshing showers and occasional destructive storms in the humid eastern portion. Owing to the latitude of the main transcontinental belt of the province, the number of hours of sunlight each day in summer is increased beyond what it is in the main portions of the austral provinces, thus favouring the growth of vegetation. There is also a lengthening of the morning and evening duration of twilight, and magnificent sunrises and sunsets are frequent. The mean summer temperature is in the neighbourhood of 70° F., but hot spells, lasting for days, and even weeks, are of common occurrence. During these trying and frequently unhealthy intervals the temperature in the shade reaches or even exceeds 100° F., and sunstrokes or prostrations by reason of the heat, particularly in the cities, are numerous. The four
seasons of the year are better marked and have more pronounced characteristics in this division of the continent than in any other, and it is the region of greatest seasonal climatic changes as well as of marked weekly and even daily variations in weather conditions. The most delightful months to most people are May, when the returning migratory birds are nesting, the trees unfolding their many tinted leaves, and the air laden with the perfume of multitudes of blossoms, and October, when the rich colours of ripened leaves give to the forests a marvellous variety and brilliancy of colour and the tranquil, hazy atmosphere is undisturbed by storms for days and even weeks together. This annual period of tranquil weather, extending frequently far into November, is known as Indian summer.
In the northern portion of the transition province the broad-leaved, deciduous trees of the central and eastern portions of the United States reach their northern limit, and become mingled with a southward extension of the conifers which form the major portion of the forest of Canada. A similar but less marked change occurs among the Pacific mountains, where the scattered growths of oaks, piñon pines, sycamores, etc., of the lower mountain slopes and stream sides mingle with the spruces and yellow and white pines of the more elevated region, where the climate is similar to that of central Canada. As remarked by Merriam, the province as a whole is characterized by comparatively few distinctive animals or plants, but rather by the occurrence together of southern species which there find their northern limit and northern species which there reach their southern limit. It embraces the northern portion of the truly agricultural lands of the continent. The plants of economic importance which there reach their highest stage of perfection are wheat, oats, and other cereals, the sugar-beet, numerous vegetables, the white potato, apples in great variety and abundance, cherries, plums, grapes, etc. It is the northern limit of corn, and includes nearly the entire area in which maple-sugar is produced. In the eastern portion of the province several varieties of native nuts, such as the beechnut, butternut, chestnut, hazelnut, hickory-nut, walnut,
etc., grow wild and in great abundance; but nut-bearing hardwood trees are also a characteristic feature of the forests of the humid portion of the austral provinces.
In the western division of the province a humid area—embracing western Washington and Oregon, part of northern California, including the Coast Range of the same States—presents a marked contrast to the more widely extended and excessively irregular arid portion which surrounds the higher mountains and is for the most part remote from the ocean. Both the humid and arid divisions of the western part of the province are alike favourable for agriculture, as is shown by the vast and highly productive wheat-fields of the semihumid eastern portion of the States just named and the productive hop lands, orchards, and vineyards of their humid western portions.
The climate of a great land area not only finds expression in its fauna and flora, but in the industries and the intellectual development of its people. While it is difficult to translate man's physical and intellectual development into terms of climate, it is evident that the transition province favours both bodily and mental activity more than any of the other climatic provinces into which North America is here divided. Although the boundary between the upper austral and the transition provinces is indefinite, it is easily to be seen, from the geographical distribution of cities, agricultural population, manufactories, colleges, and other institutions of learning, etc., that the climate of the province under review is on the whole the one in which the greatest intellectual advance has been made and the one which holds out the greatest promise for the future.
The Boreal Province (Plate III).—This climatic division of North America extends in a broad belt diagonally across the continent from the eastern portion of Labrador nearly to the shore of Bering Sea, and is represented by detached areas in both the Atlantic and Pacific mountains far beyond its general southern limit. Its northern border, in the Continental basin, is marked by the cessation of forests, and on the mountains to the southward its upper limit coincides with the timber-line. Its leading climatic features
are its low mean annual temperature—in general from 32° to 40° F.—its long, cold winters, and short, hot summers. The differences in mean annual precipitation in various parts of the province are less marked than in the several provinces previously noticed, but in the far north a cold arid division should be recognised. Although but few direct measures of precipitation are available for comparison, our general knowledge of the great boreal province and the character of its vegetation indicate that there is a decrease in precipitation from both the eastern and western borders of the continent towards the interior, and also from its central portion both northward and southward. The heaviest precipitation is on the Pacific coast, from California northward to southern Alaska, and the lightest precipitation is probably in the central Continental basin, near the northern limit of the province. Precipitation on the Pacific coast at low elevations is almost entirely in the form of rain, but on the mountains there is in winter deep snow which remains for a number of months unmelted. Throughout the portion of the province included in Canada and Alaska the snowfall is abundant, but heaviest towards the Atlantic coast. Along the northern margin of the province, as indicated by observations at a small number of stations, not only is the mean annual precipitation light, probably under 20 inches, but the winter snow is not deep, although it remains on the ground continuously for five or six months. In the main or northern portion of the boreal province, owing to the comparatively high latitude, the variation in the number of hours of light and darkness each day during a year becomes conspicuous. In summer the sun is above the horizon from eighteen to twenty-four hours each day, and in winter the hours of darkness are correspondingly increased. The year is divided into but two seasons, summer and winter, the distinctive features of spring and fall, so well marked in the upper austral and transition provinces, disappearing. On account of the low mean annual temperature, and especially because of the shortness of the growing season, agriculture is of small importance. Along its southern border, more especially in southeastern Canada and Newfoundland,