Climate Of The New Northwest

Uarptr't Weehly iu areoent interesting artiole desoriptive "of tho country traversed by tbo routo of the Northom Pftjifio Railroad, gives the following reasonable explanation of the remarkablo uiildness of olimato aud fertility of eoil wliich charaolerizes the vast regiou whicli has come tn be known s the New Northwest. ïhat journal says :- The fuct of the mildnesa of the oli matu whieh prevails aloiig the belt of country tributary to the lino of the Northern Pacific Hailroad, is abundantly establishod. Nowliero between Lake Superior and Puget Sound is thd oliluüte colder thau in Minnesota ; aud this grtat State is not surpassed as a wheat-produciug región, or in liealthfulness of atmosphere. Uakota - is vary milar to Mianesota ; and from Dakota westward tho climate stcadily modifles, utitil, in üregon and Washington Territory, thera is almost no winter at all aside from a raiuy ceason, as in Califorcia Tbtongbout Dakota, Montana, and Northeru Idaho cattle aud horseg range out all wiuter, and in the spring aro fat and strong. Records kept by ííovernmeut oüicord at the various military stations on the upper waters of the Missouri shovv Unit tho average annual teuiperature for a series of years bas been wanner iu Central Montana than ut Chicago or Albany. Tliia remarkablo inodilication of climate, the existeucc of' whieh no well-iuformed person uow questions, is due to several natural causes, chief amoug whicli aro theae :- First, the country lying between the 44th aud óüth parallel is lower by some 3,000 feet than tho belt lying immediatoly soutb. Tbe bigbeet poiut on the line of tbe Northero Paoifio road ia 3,500 feet lower than the corrospouding suniinit of the Union and Central line. Both tbe Itocky and the Uasoade ranges, whore they are ciossed by theNorth■efo Faeifio route, a:o brokeo dowo to low elevalions compared wi'h thoir height 400 miles southward. This difieren (o iu aliitude would accouut for mueh of the dillerenee in climato, as four degreea of temperaturo are usually ullowed for eaeh 1000 feat of olevatiou. liut, seooud, the warm -winds from tho South Paoifio, whieh prevail io winter, and (aidod by the warui ocean ourrents oorresponding to our Allantio G-ulf Stream), produce tbe genial climate of our Pucifio eoa8t, pass over the low mouutain ridges to the north of latitude 44, and carry their eoftening offect far inland, giving to Eastern Washingtou tha climate of Virginia, and to Moutana ibo oümate of Obio, without itb dampuesa and chili. The sarao cauae - the depression of tbe mouQtuin rangoatoward the north- aocouuts for the abundan rain-fall ia nearly aíí parta of this vast area. Tho southvrebt vvinds, saturated by the eTaporation of tho trópica, carry the raiücluuds eastward over the continental divide, aud distribute thcir moisture orer. the "fertilo belt" atretohing from th mountaics to the lakes. Further South iho mo'-intaiaa, with t'neir greater altitude, tol a a wall against tbe warm, ruoist, wet winds ; heneo the colder winters aud the ariditv of portion of the regioru aouth of Montana and east of the niouotaiua. That the olimato of that Northwest whieh is now to be opeaed to Bettlement, travel, ;nd trade is such as to rr.ake it a congenial homo for he migrating inijlions of Central aud Northern Europo, and the crowded portions of our own land, there is no doubt.