of England. The diocese of Rupert's Land is only bounded on the west by the Rocky mountains, on the north by the Arctic ocean, and on the east by the limits of Canada; its bishop is Right Reverend David Anderson, D.D. Between the Catholic and Protestant missions, which reach the most remote districts, and exert a salutary influence upon the native population, there are established the most fraternal relations.

At Red River, almost within sight of each other, are numerous parish churches and schools, to whose influence a remarkable degree of intelligence and morality may be attributed.

Education.-A newspaper, a public library, numerous and well-conducted schools, and the influence of cultivated and even scientific men, who are often found in this company's service, and who usually retire at the age of fifty years with liberal incomes, founding families at Selkirk, concur with the ecclesiastical organization to produce a favorable condition of society.

The general appearance of the farms and tenements of the people is identical with the settlements of the Lower St. Lawrence river.

CLIMATIC ADAPTATION TO AGRICULTURE.

The climate of the Red River valley is characterized by extremes of temperature probably greater than any other part of the continent; while the annual mean is higher than that of the same parallels of western Europe, including some of the best agricultural regions of that continent. The difference between its hottest and coldest months, as compared with other climates of great annual range, will be shown in the following table, as also the difference between the mean winter and summer temperatures :

It is the excessive cold of the long winter season, embracing five months of the year in this latitude, which reduces the annual mean.

The mean for the three winter months of December, January, and February, at the Red River settlement, is 60 85'. At Fort Snelling it is 16°; at Green Bay, 19° 9'; at Detroit, 26° 8'; at Montreal, 16° 3'.

But it must be remembered that the Red River settlement lies upon the very edge of this climatic belt, in close proximity to the arctic declivity of Hudson Bay, and is by far the coldest part of the whole basin of the Winnipeg. The climate grows rapidly warmer on the same parallels westward, even when there is an increase of elevation.

It is warmer at Fort Benton, on the Missouri, than at Saint Paul, Fort Benton being 7 degrees of longitude west of Saint Paul, while it is 24 degrees of latitude further north, and 1,843 feet higher in relative elevation.

"The mean winter temperature at Fort Benton," says Blodgett, "is twentyfive degrees, the same as that of Chicago, Toronto, Albany, and Portland, Maine. At Saint Paul it is but fifteen degrees, being ten degrees less. It is not so cold as this on the south branch of the Saskatchewan."

The Red River winter.—Mr. Blodgett claims that the whole Saskatchewan valley has a climate very nearly as mild in its annual average as that of Saint Paul, which would give it a winter mean of fifteen degrees, and an annual mean of forty-four degrees, which represents the climate of Wisconsin, Northern Iowa, Michigan, Western Canada, Northern New York, and Southern New England. But, though the winter of this region is a period of intense cold, during which the mercury often remains frozen for days together, its effect upon the physical comfort is mitigated by a clear, dry atmosphere, such as makes the winters of Minnesota the season of animal and social enjoyment. The buffalo winter in myriads on the nutritious grasses of its prairies up to as high a latitude as Lake Athabasca. The half-breeds and Indians camp out in the open plain during the whole winter with no shelter but a buffalo skin tent and abundance of buffalo robes, and the horses of the settlers run at large all winter and grow fat on the grasses which they pick up in the woods and bottoms. As compared with Fort Snelling, the winter of the Red River settlement will be shown as follows, including the months of November and March in the natural winter group:

Red River spring.-Spring opens at nearly the same time from Saint Paul to Lake Athabasca; April and May are the natural spring months of this whole climatic belt. The abruptness of the transition from winter to spring in these northern latitudes is a wonderful feature of the climate. In the Red River settlement the mean of March is 9° 9'. In April it rises to 390 S3', and in May to 58° 46'. Compare this with the springs of Minnesota and Western Canada:

Agricultural capacity of the summer months. This rich upward swell of the spring temperature is prolonged through the summer months of June, July, and August, to include the amplest measures of heat for all agricultural purposes. Corn thrives well at a mean temperature of sixty-five degrees for the summer months, requiring, however, a July mean of sixty-seven degrees. Wheat requires a mean temperature of from sixty-two to sixty-five degrees for the two months of July and August. These two great representative staples of American agriculture carry with them the whole procession of useful flora that characterize the northern belt of the temperate zone. Now the mean temperature of Red River, for the three summer months, is 670 76', nearly three degrees of heat more than is necessary for corn, while July has four degrees of heat

more than is required for its best development. The mean of the two months of July and August is sixty-seven degrees, five degrees above the requirement of wheat.

The following figures will show at a glance the excess of summer heat in the Red River valley above the measures required for the best agricultural develop

Mean temperature of two months of July and August
Required for wheat..

67

62

Excess

5

The following table will serve for comparison between the summer temperatures of the Red River with the rich agricultural climates of the south:

It will thus be seen that the summer climate of Red River is warmer than that of any of the localities indicated in the above table, except Fort Snelling and Muscatine, Iowa; warmer than that of Northern Illinois, Western Wisconsin, Northern New York, or Western Canada. Its June is warmer than in any of the points given, its June and July warmer than any except Fort Snelling, while its Augusts are cooler than any of the rest. The last-named locality, in the same latitude as the Red River settlement, with a corresponding geographical position, is its equivalent in annual mean temperature; but the difference between the extremes of summer and winter temperature is much less in the interior European than in the American plain. No part of the United States has so low an annual mean. Fort Kent, Maine, with a mean of 37°, is its nearest approach.

Autumn. The mean temperature for the autumnal months are as follows, compared with Minnesota:

November, which in Minnesota belongs partly to autumn and partly to winter, belongs entirely to the winter season in the more northern latitude of Red River. The reader will see that the fall plunges into winter almost as rapidly as the spring emerges from it.

Climate of the Red River settlement compared with Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.-The following table will illustrate the climate of the Red River valley as compared with other and better known latitudes:

Table of monthly means of Red River and Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Table showing the means of the seasons for the above localities.

Thus it will be seen that while the winter curve in the region immediately south and west of the great lakes exhibits an extraordinary depression, its rich summer measures place it in the best agricultural belt of the temperate zone.

Bountiful summer rains.-The Saskatchewan valley is a singular exception to the almost universal sterility which characterizes the continent west of the 98th meridian. The great American desert derives its barrenness from the lack of rain.

The Winnipeg basin, on the other hand, is abundantly supplied with moisture during the summer months, although the dryness of the winter months reduces the mean annual precipitation below that of points lying nearer the ocean.

No rain-tables have ever been constructed for any portion of this district, except for the single year 1855, at the Red River settlement. The following table exhibits the results compared with Minnesota and Western Canada:

LIT

By multiplying the figures for November, December, January, February, and March by 10, the result will show the fall of snow, probably the actual form of the precipitation in those months.

The column for Red River exhibiting the moisture of a single year, cannot be adopted as the uniform measure of precipitation in that country; but if, as Blodgett informs us, a difference of one-eighth will cover the range of any nonperiodic variations of the rain-fall in the basin east of the Rocky mountains, (a rule that is confirmed by a comparison of the Toronto column for the same year with the means for several years given in his work,) it may serve as an approximative index to the rain standard of the country. The excessive rains of that summer, which has no equivalent on the continent, except the winter rain of the Pacific, is probably much beyond the uniform mean, or if, regarded as an approximation to a constant term, may be accounted for by its contiguity to Hudson bay and Lake Superior.

A region liable to such occasional rains cannot certainly be deficient in moisture. The reader will observe the great preponderance of moisture in the spring and summer months, with the extreme dryness of winter. Converted into snow, the whole winter fall will be 22 inches, the same as at Saint Paul, while that of Canada is 61 inches, and most of the eastern States 120 inches. This extreme lightness of the winter precipitation characterizes the whole of the plains east of the Rocky mountains, without reference to latitude, including the Saskatchewan valley, and is a fact of great importance in determining the adaptability of those regions for railroads.