Minnesota; Its Character and Climate / Likewise Sketches of Other Resorts Favorable to Invalids; Together with Copious Notes on Health; Also Hints to Tourists and Emigrants.

by Ledyard Bill

The climatic divisions of the country.—Periodical rains.—Prevailing winds of the continent.—Changes of temperature.—Consumption in warm climates.—Cold, humid atmospheres.—What climate most desirable for the consumptive.—The dry atmosphere of the interior.—Dry winds of the interior.—Table of rain-fall of the whole country.

Until a comparatively recent date the climate of the continent was held, by all of the more learned in matters of physical geography and climatic law, to have but one general characteristic; but these conclusions have been found to be utterly erroneous, and now it is known to be susceptible of division into three great and entirely distinct areas, each being highly marked, and leaving, on these various surfaces, peculiar evidence of their existence.

Instead of an oceanic climate prevailing over the entire continent, it is found to have but very narrow limits along the Pacific coast of the United States, being broken entirely from the interior by the elevated mountain ranges, conforming to them throughout their entire extent, and having a sweep from near the thirty-sixth parallel to Sitka and the Aleutian Islands, away to the extreme northwest.

The second division embraces the great interior basin lying between the ranges of one hundred and twenty degrees and ninety-two degrees west longitudes, having a general trend from the southwest, at San Diego, to Hudson's Bay in British America, in the northeast. This vast district is paralleled by that of the interior climate and character of the continent of Asia in its elevation, aridity, and great extent, and may be known as the true continental or Asiatic climate of the United States. It is on the edge of this district, and visibly under its influence, that the State of Minnesota, for the most part, lies. But we pass, for the present, to the brief consideration of the third grand division, embracing the entire country east of a line drawn from near Central Texas to the centre of Wisconsin, including the immediate region surrounding all the great lakes. Here we have an association of elements constituting a highly variable climate, which prevails over all its surface at all seasons, with remarkable uniformity. The wide range in both vegetable and animal life over this area is one of its chief distinguishing characteristics, partaking of the semi-tropical on the one hand, with a low winter temperature on the other, but traversing neither range so far as to prove directly destructive in its effects. All over this eastern area are scattered lakes and rivers, with an ocean boundary line, and uniform forest ranges with a great variety of deciduous trees known to the temperate and sub-tropical latitudes; and it is quite remarkable to note that some of the latter forms extend in their acclimation to near the northern boundary lines of the Union, while the pine, walnut, and chestnut may be found at or near the extreme southern limits.

In all of these three grand divisions of climate, however, exceptional localities exist where there is a marked nonconformity to the prevailing characteristics. The peninsula of Florida is such an exception, owing to its peculiar location, and the great humidity of its atmosphere during a considerable fraction of the year. Here we have a fully developed season of periodical rains, beginning usually in June and ending in the latter part of September. The winter is the dry season, being contrary to the general rule applying to tropical and sub-tropical areas, and forms, with the mild temperature, the principal ground for the reputation which that State has as a resort for special classes of invalids.[B]

The sudden and extreme variations of temperature in this eastern climatic tract, whether from local disturbing causes, as is not unfrequently the case, or otherwise, are usually accompanied by cold draughts of air, chilling and generating all manner of ills, of which rheumatism and consumption are the separate and highest types.

While it is generally understood that the prevailing winds of the whole continent embraced within the limits of the United States are uniformly from the west, still, over this eastern division, counter-winds of a lower character disturb, modify, and elevate the course of this great westerly current, giving rise to the exceeding variability of the surface winds, which, as is well known, may blow within the brief space of twenty-four hours from all directions of the compass, at almost any time and point whatsoever.

Changes of temperature, while essential in some circumstances to health, may be, if of a certain specific character, infinitely damaging, and such are the cold humid winds from the northeast with easterly inclinations. These are the dreadful scourges of all the Atlantic slope above the Carolinas, and there is scarce any portion east of the Mississippi Valley free from their occasional visitation. In the extreme southern limits, along the Gulf, and on the Peninsular State, the poison, so to speak, of this wind, is so far modified by the greater temperature of these localities as measurably to disarm it of danger; yet, even in those latitudes, it is to be (during and after a prolonged storm) avoided by all, and especially weak and enfeebled constitutions.

The cases of consumption found in these warmer climates have been cited as disproving the heretofore accepted theory that this disease was limited in range to the middle and eastern portion of the Union; and it has been further assumed that the liability to its attack was as great there as at any point further north.

These conclusions have little foundation in fact, as is well known by all who have taken pains to investigate the question with that thoroughness which the subject demands. The catalogue of ills belonging to all warm climates is not only long enough, but likewise sufficiently dreadful, without adding to it that scourge, which is the child of the northeast winds, with its home in the changeful temperature along the upper Atlantic coast. It is quite true that cases occur in even tropical districts, but they are the stray offspring of some unusual departure of the cold and humid northerly currents. It must not, however, be taken as a sequence of this proposition that any and all warm countries would prove a sovereign balm and remedy; but, that there are a few localities of this condition in temperature, where patients of the class under consideration may reside with positive advantage, and not unfrequent restoration to health follow, we both believe and know.