ed will either be refunded to the occupier of the land when he is entitled to a patent therefor or will be credited to him on account of payment for land. When the party obtaining the mining rights to lands cannot make an arrangement with the owner or his agent or the occupant thereof for the acquisition of the surface rights, it shall be lawful for him to give notice to the owner or his agent or the occupier to appoint an arbitrator to act with another arbitrator named by him, in order to award the amount of compensation to which the owner or occupant shall be entitled. The notice mentioned in this section shall be according to a form to be obtained upon application from the gold commissioner for the district in which the lands in question lie, and shall, when practicable, be personally served on such owner, or his agent if known, or occupant; and after reasonable efforts have been made to effect personal service, without success, then such notice shall be served by leaving it at, or sending by registered letter to, the last place of abode of the owner, agent, or occupant. CHAPTER XIV. CLIMATE OF ALASKA. Willis L. Moore, chief of the United States Weather Bureau, has prepared a valuable and interesting report on the climate of Alaska. "The climates of the coast and the interior," he says, “are unlike in many respects, and the differences are intensified in this, as perhaps in few other countries, by exceptional physical conditions. The natural contrast between land and sea is here tremendously increased by the current of warm water that impinges on the coast of British Columbia, one branch flowing northward toward Sitka, and thence westward to the Kadiak and Shumagin Islands. "The fringe of islands that separates the mainland from the Pacific Ocean from Dixon Sound northward and also a strip of the mainland for possibly twenty miles back from the sea, following the sweep of the coast, as it curves to the northwestward to the western extremity of Alaska, form a distinct climate division, which may be termed temperate Alaska. The temperature rarely falls to zero; winter does not set in until December 1, and by the last of May the snow has disappeared except on the mountains. The mcan winter temperature of Sitka is 32.5, but little less than that of Washington, D. C. While Sitka is fully exposed to the sea influence, places further inland, but not over the coast range of mountains, as Killisnoo and Juneau, have also mild temperatures throughout the winter months. The temperature changes from month to month in temperate Alaska are small, not exceeding twenty-five degrees from midwinter to midsummer. The average temperature of July, the warmest month of summer, rarely reaches 55 degrees, and the highest temperature of a single day seldom reaches 75 degrees. "The rainfall of Temperate Alaska is notorious the world over, not only as regards the quantity that falls, but also as to the manner of its falling, viz., in long and incessant rains and drizzles. Cloud and fog naturally abound, there being on an average but sixty-six clear days in the year. "Alaska is a land of striking contrasts, both in climate as well as topography. When the sun |