Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/119

Rh This is the climate not only of Walla Walla, but of nearly the whole eastern portion of Oregon and Washington—ranging from a mean winter temperature of thirty-five degrees to a mean summer temperature of seventy degrees at Dalles, and from forty-one degrees to seventy degrees at Walla Walla; the winters being warmest at the latter place, and the summers about equal. Owing to the dryness and purity of the air, the atmosphere is never sultry, as in the Atlantic States, however warm it may be, and sun-strokes are almost unknown; while both men and animals can endure to labor in the sun at a much higher temperature than in moister climates. Neither do violent wind-storms visit this country, such as are experienced in the Mississippi Valley; nor earthquakes give people tremors, as in California. There have been one or two instances of the sudden rise of streams at the foot of the mountains, from a cloud-burst above, and the crops have been washed out of the soil by the sudden deluge. But these things are unusual, and are also a warning against building houses in narrow valleys, beside streams which head in the mountains. A higher location is at once more healthful and more safe, in any country.

We were invited out into the foot-hills, to visit a farm opened only the year before, where this accident by cloud-burst had destroyed the promising young orchard, garden, and a portion of the grain crop of the first year; but owing to the fertility of the soil, and length of the growing season, the injury was, in a measure, repaired the same year. When we were there, during the first week in June, the rye in a field on the hill-side stood seven feet high, with occasional bunches several inches higher. The farmer—a young