This Kuro-Siwo, or Japanese current,--sometimes called black current, or Japanese black current, from its hue,--corresponds in many ways to the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic: like it, its waters are warmed in the equatorial regions under a vertical sun; and, like it, a great portion of these waters are carried northward in its flow, and their heat poured upon the eastern shores of its ocean, till their climate is phenomenally temperate compared with the western shores in the same parallels. Sitka is said to have, as a result of facing this current, a mean winter temperature of a point half way between Baltimore and Washington, or slightly milder than the winter temperature of Baltimore. It is said to be no unusual thing to suffer from an ice famine in Sitka. A short way inland the winters are not so temperate, more snow falling at that season, while rain characterizes the coast face; but during the summer, or excursion season, these rains are not unpleasantly frequent. I take the following from a letter from Sitka, and published in the San Francisco _Bulletin_ of January 9, 1882, before this country was really opened to excursionists, although the subject was being discussed, so much had been heard of this wonderland: "The climate, as shown by the meteorological data collected by the signal service observers, is not of such a disagreeable character as some would have us believe. The scientific data collected and tabulated for the year 1881, as shown by the records at Sitka, Chilkoot, Juneau and Killisnoo, disprove most emphatically the seemingly malicious assertions in reference to its climate. ========================================================================= |April.|May.|June.|July.|Aug. |Sept.|Oct. |Nov.| Dec. --------------------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----- Mean Temperature | 42.5 |45.4|51.2 | 54.2|56.7 |54. |46.3 |41.8|34.8 Max. Temperature | 56.5 |61. |65. | 67. |79. |63.8 |57.8 |52.8|44.9 Min. Temperature | 31. |31. |41. | 43. |43.9 |40.5 |32. |22.5|14. Total rainfall, | | | | | | | | | inches | 4.21| 3.1| 1.54| 4.4| 1.98|12.11| 5.04|13.5|10.52 --------------------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+-----