The Japanese Current, already referred to, strikes these shores at Queen Charlotte Island in latitude 50° north, where it divides, one portion going northward and westward along the coast of Alaska, and the other southward, tempering the waters which border upon Washington, Oregon, and California; hence their mild climate. Sea captains who frequently make the voyage between San Francisco and Yokohama have told the author that this Japanese Current—with banks and bottom of cold water, while its body and surface are warm—is so clearly defined as to be distinguishable in color from the ordinary hue of the Pacific Ocean, and that its deep blue forms a visible line of demarcation between the greater body and itself along its entire course. The thermometer will easily define such a current, and this the author has often seen demonstrated from a ship’s deck; but it must be a very keen eye that can distinguish such differences of color at sea as the above assertion would indicate. In so extended a territory as that of Alaska, with broad plains, deep valleys, and lofty mountain ranges, it is reasonable to suppose there must be a great diversity of climate. The brief inland summer is represented to exhibit marked extremes of heat, and the winter corresponding extremes of cold. W. H. Dall, an undoubted authority in all matters relating to the valley of the Yukon, though his book upon the country was published some twenty years since, says: “At Fort Yukon I have seen the thermometer at noon, not in the direct rays of the sun, stand at 112°, and I was informed by the commander of the post that several spirit thermometers graded up to 120° had burst under the scorching sun of the Arctic midsummer.” Fort Yukon is the most northerly point in Alaska inhabited by white men. It is estimated that ten or twelve thousand Eskimos live in the uninviting region north of the Yukon valley. They are a most remarkable people, who are struggling with the cold three quarters of the year, and who seem to be strangely content with a bare existence. Their days and nights, their seasons and years, are not like those of the rest of the world. Six months of day is succeeded by six months of night. They have three months of sunless winter, three months of nightless summer, and six months of gloomy twilight. No Christian enlightenment or religious teaching of any sort has ever found its way into this region. The people believe in evil spirits and powers who are in some way to be propitiated, but have no conception of a Divine Being who overrules all things for good. Like the southern Alaskans they are superstitious to the last degree, and discover omens in the most ordinary occurrences. The decencies of life are almost totally disregarded among them, their highest purpose being apparently the achievement of animal comfort and gorging themselves with food and oil.