Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/136

* CANADA. 108 CANADA. but warmer, and even niorc moist. Flowers bloom in the "gardens tlic year round, and fruit reaches the utmost e.veeilenoe. Warmth aud 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. Robbed of only a portion of their bur- den, but lifted and rarefied by elevation, the winds sweep across the interior valley of British Columbia and strike against the snowy Rookies, to deposit more rain or snow, but rain so rarely falls on the intervening Fraser-Thonipson Valley that agriculture there nuist depend upon irriga- tion. The reason for this is Dial the ever- ascending heat of the sun-baked ])lains buoys up the higher air-currents and lifts them straight across to the Selkirks and Eastern Rockies, to whose vast snow-fields they give almost all of the moisture yet remaining. These once warm winds are now, however, cool w-inds, because they have become dry and rarefied. The eastern side of the tlanadiaii Rocky .Mountains has little sncjw^ and is sparsely [irovided with trees, as com- ])ared with its western side,' or with the coast ranges, and 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 Manitoba. This is due to the phenomenon called the Chinook, which is a wind caused by the rarefied air rushing down from the summits, necessarily increasing in density by <-om|)ression as it strikes the plains level, absorbing moisture and giving >ip its latent heat to the extent of alxmt 23° F. The chinook 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 CiiiNOOiv 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 [lasturage to stock, and in producing early conditions of spring. On 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 n(nth of it — the same latitude as the middle of Labrador! Us infiuence wanes with dis- tance eastward, however, and Manitoba is sub- ject to the extremes of its position 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 cool, and the autunnuil frosts liable to begin in August, In the extreme north a rigorous .rctic climate prevails, with the winter temperature deseemling to — 7.5°, The sunnners are, however, still fa- orable to plant growth. The whole Northwest, however, is healthfil in a high awrence Valley. A great space between Hudson Bay and the .rctic shores is al- most a desert, and has been known from the ear- liest times as the Barren Ground or Tundra, yielding hardly anything more than mosses, lichens, and a few willews and hardy herbs. The flora of the Saint Lawrence Valley and of the Maritime Provinces ditfers little from that of the norllieastcrn United States, the whole of that s])ace having lioeu originally covered with mixed forests of large and valuable trees, both coniferous and ban! wood. The western jdains are comparatively treeless as far north as the Saskatchewan, yet are covered with prai- rie grasses and 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 antclo])es, and now furnish suste- nance for a rich stock-raising region. North of the Saskatchewan a broad belt of rather small and spar.se trees extends from Huds(m Bay to Great Slave Lake and the Rock}' Mountains — chiefly sjn-uce, tamarack, and poi)lar. The dry western slopes and valleys of the Rocky Moun- tains are thinl.y covered with woods, mainly ])ine; but the forest increases in density and the trei- in size as one proceeds west toward the regicm of greater rainfall; and after passing the treeless l''raser-Thoiii|)son 'alley, the coast ranges, and especially their western slopes, are found covered with the dense forests of mighty evergreen trees that characterize the northwest coast of all North America. The principal trees are the Houglas spruce, or 'Oregon pine' {Pseudotnu- ga); the white cedar (Thuja); a hemlock {Tsti- ga ilcrtensiu), and Knglemann's spruce (I'icKi Knglcmiiiini) . These coast forests are inconceiva- bly dense and sombre, and their average height on the lowlands is not less than 200 feet, while the llouglas spruces often exceed 300 feet, and the cedars are hardly less tall. Fauna. The animals of Canada are as varied as its flora and characteristic of northern lati tudes. All bear a clo.se resemblance to tho^i- of Northern Europe and Asia, and many species are identical — that is, have a circumpolar range. (See America, jiaragraph on FttiDui.) ' The car- nivora are represented by sev;^ral species of the weasel family (such as the ermine, sable, fisher, wolverine, mink (qq.v,), etc., whose abundance and value long ago gave the name Fur Countries to northern Canada. There are also the lynx, bear, fox, wolf, skunk, and in the Northwest the badger. The i)uma or American lion is still found in some parts. Among the rodents, the beaver is so widespread and characteristic, aiul was so important to the beginnings of colo- nial civilization, that it has become the na- tional emblem of the Dominion. The Canadian porcupine, muskrat (locally called 'musquash'), hares, aud many smaller rodents arc numerous, and on the western plains are a variety of bur- rowing 'gophers' and the like. The Virginian and black-tailed deer enter the southern edge of Canada, and the elk is found in the Rocky iloun- tains, but the moose and various caribou range all over British North -Vmcrica; and in the movm- tains of British Columbia the wild slice]) and the white goat ant(dopc are numerous and high- ly characteristic. The prong-horn antelope is ."till abundant in some parts of the Saskatche- wan Valley, and the musk-ox is found in the .rc- tic tracts. There is an inunensc variety of birds, many of which, characteristic of northern (di- niates. are unknown southward; but the ma jority are migrants that go to the northern parts of Can- ada to breed, and leave the country in the winter for warmer regions southward, rishcs are numer- ous in all the inland waters, and about all the coasts (see Fis/ien>s, below), but reptiles aud the