| Summary: | HARVEY ILLUSTRATED sections west of the Missouri river oak groves are found in the valleys. RIVERS AND LAKES. The Red river of the north separates North Dakota from Minnesota—a distance of 200 miles—and drains what is known as the Red River valley. Its principal tributaries in North Dakota are the Sheyenne, Maple, Goose, Park and Pembina rivers. Of these the Sheyenne is the most important, running for more than 300 miles through portions of ten counties. The James river flows through six counties, in a southerly course, for about 225 miles. These rivers water the country lying between the Red river and the Missouri river. The Mouse river, which flows into the Assiniboine in Manitoba, makes a long loop in North Dakota, fully 200 miles in length, passing through four counties. The Missouri river traverses the state for a distance of about 350 miles, having a general course from northwest to southeast, and in this distance it has no important tributaries on the east except the James river. The principal North Dakota streams flowing into the Missouri from the west are the Little Missouri river, which traverses the western portion of the state for a distance of 250 miles; the Big Knife river, 125 miles in length; the Heart river, 150 miles long, and the Cannon Ball, with its north and south forks, fully 150 miles in extent. These four streams, with a number of important tributaries, water that part of North Dakota lying west of the Missouri river. \ considerable part of the drainage of the North Dakota prairies is into lakes and ponds, many of which have no outlets. Devils Lake, the largest body of water, is fifty miles long and from two to six miles wide. There are hundreds of smaller lakes, varying in size from an area of a few acres to that of five or six square miles. These lakes give especial facilities to the farmers for water for stock in sections where there are few running streams. The lakes abound in water fowl and fish, and are an attractive feature of the country. CLIMATE. The climate of North Dakota is much more pleasant than it is generally thought to be by those who have not experienced it or consulted statistics on the subject. The popular belief that the winters are of arctic severity is not warranted by the meteoroligi- ical records that have been kept in the state for the past 46 years. From these records it is found that the average of mean temperature of the state is 39 degrees, and that the monthly mean temperature ranges from 3 degrees in January to 70 degrees in July. The extreme maximum temperature ranges from 101 to no degrees, and the extreme minimum from 34 below zero to 55 below hut it is not to be supposed that such readings are often recorded, or that the extremes are of long duration. From the fact that the humidity or moisture in the air is always low, these periods of extreme heat or cold are not accompanied by the discomfort or distress that is experienced in the seaboard states. The mean annual precipitation is slightly over 17 inches, varying from about [3 inches in the south central portion to 20 in the northern and Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
|
|---|